Basics of design and modeling of regenerative electrocaloric coolers

Auteurs

Torelló A., Defay E.

Référence

The Electrocaloric Effect: Materials and Applications, pp. 333-357, 2023

Description

Electrocaloric devices have undergone great advances in recent years, and the achieved performances are getting close to the figures that real cooling applications require. Throughout this journey, modeling tools, such as finite elements method (FEM) software, have become transcendental to mimic and predict the operation of EC coolers and, hence, help to optimize their design and performances. Because of the low EC effect that most materials display, practically all EC coolers employ regenerative cycles (such as heat regeneration or cascading), and hence, these are first reviewed in Section 15.1. In Section 15.2, numerical modeling of a fluid-based active electrocaloric regenerator (AER) is described in its general form, focusing on its physical equations. In Section 15.3, the basics of FEM software for AER modeling are discussed and, finally, in Section 15.4, an example of an EC device model is reviewed.

Lien

doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-821647-7.00015-3