Investigation on performance of a new thermoelectric cooler with hot and cold side separation for suppressing Fourier effect

•A new thermoelectric cooler with cold and hot side separation is proposed.•The performance is improved by change in the intermediate conductor structures.•The cold side temperature can be more than 30 K lower than the traditional element.•The temperature difference between hot and cold sides can be doubled.•It can continue to work when the hot side radiator is damaged. This paper proposed a new split structure of thermoelectric cooler to reduce the cold side temperature compared with the traditional thermoelectric cooler. A three-dimensional heat transfer model was established by COMSOL to explore the effect of the input current, the length and radius of the intermediate conductor, the heat dissipation condition and other parameters on performance of the new thermoelectric cooler. The results show that the split TEC element can continue to reduce the optimal cold side temperature by more than 30 K and the temperature difference between the cold and hot sides of the element can be doubled compared with the traditional element. The performance of the split element is affected by the length and radius of the intermediate conductor. There are different optimal intermediate conductor lengths and radii under different input current and heat dissipation conditions. In addition, compared with traditional elements, the split elements can continue cooling after the heat dissipation device on the hot side is completely damaged, thus effectively improving the reliability of elements. The temperature of cold side of split element can be further reduced under the pulse current.