Thermal analysis of PTC heaters. Thermography of PTC and Peltier heaters. Labview® based control and Matlab® Simulink simulations of PTC heaters.

Abstract

A large variety of heating devices are being used in the industry. Two widely used smart heating devices are discussed in this study. These heating devices are Peltier/thermoelectric (TE) and Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) resistive heater. This study provides detailed experimentation of PTC heater and Peltier device at room conditions and cold environment. The thermal response of both heating devices is discussed. The study includes two sensing methods for PTC heater. One is a contact measurement method using a miniature resistive temperature detector (RTD). The other is infrared thermography that is a non-contact based method. A prototype of temperature measurement and control system (TMCS) is developed. The surface temperatures of the resistive heater are recorded using TMCS and compared with the infrared temperature readings. The infrared thermography is performed using FLIR® T1030Sc high definition infrared camera. The experimental results of TMCS show a reasonable control system response. It has the steady state error around ±0.3oC at room conditions and ±0.6oC at cold environment conditions. In addition, TMCS and IR thermography results corresponds with one another. In addition, a model of PTC heater was simulated in MATLAB® Simulink. The simulation results of resistive heater correlates with the experimental results. The infrared thermography gives an advantage to validate the control system. This study can be implemented in the applications of smart heating and control. This study can also be utilized in de-icing systems operating in cold environment.