Thermoelectric configuration employing thermal transfer fluid flow(s) with recuperator

Abstract

Active cooling technologies such as thermoelectrics can be used to introduce thermal 'gain' into a cooling system and, when employed in combination with forced flow liquid metal cooling loops, can provide an attractive solution for cooling high heat flux density devices and/or components. In such configurations, it can be advantageous to configure fluid flows to provide heat transfer between hot-side and cold-side flows. For example, it can be desirable to substantially equilibrate temperature of liquid metal flows entering hot-side and cold-side paths. In this way, thermal differential (ΔT) across individual thermoelectric elements can be reduced, thereby improving efficiency of the thermoelectric. Various suitable recuperator designs are described including designs that provide heat exchange with and without mixture of respective flows.