Enhanced modeling and experimental verification of a thermoelectric refrigerator unit considering the door opening effect

This paper introduces some novel aspects concerning the circuit-based modelling of ThermoElectric Refrigerators (TERs) used for the purpose of time-domain simulations. Starting from a previously published model, some enhancements have been introduced to represent with more details the point at which the temperature is monitored inside the TER compartment, and in particular to take into account the effects of door opening with different duration and in different conditions. The novel circuit model has been validated through experiments carried out on a real TER. In particular, a small-size TER has been used for the experiments. The advantages to consider a small-size unit is that the temperature variations following door opening are large and the identification of the suitable model and parameters becomes more challenging. The results show that the door opening effect can lead to a significant temperature transient, that can continue for a long term (hours) especially when more thermal loads are located in the TER compartment after door opening.