Simulation of Cascaded Thermoelectric Devices for Cryogenic Medical Treatment

P. Aliabadi[1], S. Mahmoud[1], R. K. AL-Dadah[1]
[1]Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
发布日期 2014

This study is focused on using a thermoelectric device (TED) as an alternative to the cryogenic liquid for cooling cryosurgical probe used for cancerous tissue ablation. Thermoelectric device, namely Peltier, is a solid state device which converts electric current to thermal gradient. In past years thermoelectric devices have been successfully utilized in refrigeration and air conditioning industry for generating low temperature. Using TEDs offers advantages over conventional method for cooling the cryogenic medical device, including compact in size, light in weight and its capability to control temperature precisely. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the single stage and multi-stage thermoelectric device using COMSOL Multiphysics®. The simulation results show the thermal performance of the single stage and cascaded Peltier modules. Simulation results proved the possibility of generating very low temperature of -70 °C for cancerous tissue ablation, by implementing multi-stage Peltier.