A Performance Evaluation of Flexible Thermoelectric Modules for Application in a Cooling Garment

In recent years, significant progress in thermoelectric module (TEM) technology has been achieved in terms of both flexibility and efficiency. This has created great application potential for it, including in cooling garments. In this paper, the results from performance tests of six selected flexible TEMs are presented and discussed in terms of their applicability in a cooling garment. For this purpose, a special testing methodology was adopted that included the use of a skin model located in a microclimate chamber that allowed the analysis of the absorbed heat flow rate from the cold side of a TEM. In addition, electrical parameters were measured in order to calculate the coefficient of performance for each of the evaluated TEMs. Based on these measurements, the TEMs were compared in terms of the cold-side heat flow rate and the number of modules needed to achieve a given heat flow rate or total cooling surface area. The best results were achieved for the TEM with dimensions of 85 mm × 68 mm × 6 mm, for which a maximum heat flow rate of 1.39 W was achieved with an electrical supply power of 0.35 W. To achieve similar values with other evaluated TEMs, two to five modules would have to be applied.