Performance prediction and test of a Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric module for waste heat recovery

Thermoelectric generator could be widely used in the exhaust heat recovery for automobile engines. It is necessary to develop thermoelectric coupling models for optimizing the configuration of thermoelectric generator and increasing the output power with better materials. Lots of works on the one-dimensional physical models were undertaken but lacked comprehensive experimental verification. In this work, a one-dimensional physical model for thermoelectric power generation is established for a thermoelectric module in certain conditions of heat source and heat sink temperatures. The influence of the thermal resistances between the thermoelement and the heat source and heat sink is carefully taken into account, and in the basic thermoelectric theory, the expression of output power based on Thomson effect is analyzed. A reasonable experiment system is devised to measure the output power of a fabricated Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric module under large temperature differences. In order to validate the reasonability of the one-dimensional temperature distribution hypothesis, the temperature distribution of the thermoelectric elements is explored by a thermal imager. At last, to verify the accuracy of the established physical model, comparisons are made between the output power calculation results and the results from experiments and 3D simulation of the ANSYS.

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