Effects of the cross‐sectional area ratios and contact resistance on the performance of a cascaded thermoelectric generator

Thermoelectric generator offers many advantages such as high durability, environmental protection, and high reliability. Since the geometric optimization of a thermoelectric generator is a proper way to improve the performance, this study considers the multiparameter optimization of thermoelectric generators to investigate the effect of cross‐sectional area ratios and contact resistance on the performance of thermoelectric generator. Here, a ∏‐type cascaded thermoelectric system with two stages including two p‐legs and two n‐legs is examined numerically by ANSYS Workbench. The effectiveness and efficiency are obtained for different electric contact resistances. The results show that with a decreasing of the electric contact resistance, the efficiency and effectiveness are increased. Also, higher output power and efficiency of the TEG device are observed with a suitable ratio of cross‐sectional area.

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