Thermoelectric heat pump fluid circuit
AssigneeMidwest Research Institute
InventorsBalakrishnan Mathiprakasam, Patrick J. Heenan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A thermoelectric heat pump fluid circuit apparatus (10) for alternately delivering hot and cold fluids to an end device (12) such as a therapeutic wrap or pad. The apparatus includes a heat pump (14), a fluid circuit (16) coupled with the heat pump and having a fluid contained therein, a pump (18) interposed in the fluid circuit for circulating the fluid therein, and a valve (20) interposed in the fluid circuit for selectively delivering fluid from the fluid circuit to a device coupled with the apparatus.
Claims11
An apparatus for alternately delivering hot and cold fluids to a devise, the apparatus comprising:
- a heat pump having a heating junction and a cooling junction;
- a single fluid circuit for holding a fluid and including
- a hot channel passing by the heating junction of the heat pump for heating fluids in the hot channel, and
- a cold channel passing by the cooling junction of the heat pump for cooling fluids in the cold channel,
- wherein the hot channel and the cold channel are connected so that a single fluid passes by both the heating junction and the cooling junction of the heat pump;
- a pump interposed in the fluid circuit for circulating the fluid therein;
- and
- a valve interposed in the circuit between the hot channel and the cold channel for selectively and alternately delivering either heated fluid or cooled fluid to the devise without requiring switching of polarity of power delivered to the heat pump.
A method of alternately delivering hot and cold fluids to a device, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a heat pump having a heating junction and a cooling junction;
- pumping a single fluid by both the heating junction and the cooling junction of the heat pump;
- and
- selectively and alternately delivering hot and cold fluids to the device without switching polarity of power delivered to the heat pump by mechanically switching flow of the fluid in the single fluid circuit to deliver to the device fluid that has just exited the heating junction or fluid that has just exited the cooling junction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.