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Thermoelastic stress analysis of multilayered films in a micro-thermoelectric cooling device

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Abstract

This paper presents an analytical solution for the thermoelastic stress in a typical in-plane’s thin-film micro-thermoelectric cooling device under different operating conditions. The distributions of the permissible temperature fields in multilayered thin-films are analytically obtained, and the characteristics, including maximum temperature difference and maximum refrigerating output of the thermoelectric device, are discussed for two operating conditions. Analytical expressions of the thermoelastic stresses in the layered thermoelectric thin-films induced by the temperature difference are formulated based on the theory of multilayer system. The results demonstrate that, the geometric dimension is a significant factor which remarkably affects the thermoelastic stresses. The stress distributions in layers of semiconductor thermoelements, insulating and supporting membrane show distinctly different features. The present work may profitably guide the optimization design of high-efficiency micro-thermoelectric cooling devices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Mechanics on Environment and Disaster in Western China, The Ministry of Education of China, College of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, China

    Yu-Mei Yang, Xing-Zhe Wang & Wen-Jie Zhang

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  1. Yu-Mei Yang
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  2. Xing-Zhe Wang
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  3. Wen-Jie Zhang
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Correspondence to Xing-Zhe Wang.

Additional information

The project was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2007CB607506), the Fok Ying-Tong Education Foundation for Young Teachers in the Higher Education Institutions of China (111005) and the Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11121202).

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Yang, YM., Wang, XZ. & Zhang, WJ. Thermoelastic stress analysis of multilayered films in a micro-thermoelectric cooling device. Acta Mech Sin 28, 1644–1650 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-012-0207-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-012-0207-3

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