Study of Extender Block Effect on Thermoelectric Module Application as Beverages Cooler

• Main Author: Meisa H, Andre
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik (Rekayasa, enjinering dan kegiatan berkaitan)
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/40712
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The second prototype of beverages cooler was built by Desti Ganius. This prototype was an improvement from the previous prototypes. However, this prototype did not meet its target of cooling a 250 ml canned beverages from 26 0C to 15 0C in 30 minutes. To find out the problem, the second prototype required a retesting. The retesting concludes that the main problem of the prototype is the increasing cooling resistance as the effect of backheat phenomena. This phenomena happened because the cold surface of the thermoelectric module is too close to it’s hot surface. To solve this problem, the prototype needs a modification. The application of extender blocks on the hot and cold surface was one of the solution for this problem. However, this solution can increase the thermal resistance of the cooling system. Therefore, a suitable combination of extender block is needed. An experiment was conducted to obtain the suitable combination of extender blocks. The experiment was conducted with the variation of extender blocks thickness of 5 mm, 8 mm, 10 mm, 13 mm, and 15 mm. To obtain the suitable combination of extender blocks, there are 4 variables that need to be considered. The four variables are: the side and botom cooler tube temperature, temperature difference between hot side and cold side, and the thermal time constant of the cooling system. From the result of the experiment, the extender blocks combination that produce the best combination of the four variables is the H5C5 combination.