Numerical analysis of a variety of thermoelectric generator materials. (2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dhass, A.D.; Krishna, R.; Sreenivasan, M.
• Is Part Of: Materials today. Volume 33:Part 1(2020)
• Page Start: 29
• Page End: 34
• Publication Date: 2020
• Subjects: Thermoelectric generator (TEG) -- Temperature difference -- Electrical energy -- Solar thermal energy -- Thermocouples -- Thermoelectric materials; Materials science -- Congresses -- Periodicals; 620.1
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.737
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2214-7853

Abstract

Abstract: The generation of electrical energy from thermal energy is often carried out by a large range of capacities of thermal equipments. At present, necessary input for low power device systems particularly sensors, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Bluetooth receivers is mostly from high power rated device sources. In this scenario, power loss is significant, while converting power from the high power ranges into low power ranges (<1 W). This problem can be mitigated using thermoelectric generators to generate electrical energy from the temperature difference at low power ranges. The thermoelectric generators have compensated by the low-temperature differences for the most important applications of low-power electrical energy. Before generating electrical energy, most existing thermal devices are coupled with mechanical devices (such as shaft). The thermoelectric generator has a lot of advantages including compactness, quietness and, the efficiency with no moving parts. In this article, different types of thermocouples (Type E, K, J, T, and Bi2 Te3 ) are studied to better analyze their parameters of performances. In this study, we have used thermoelectric generator units each consisting of a total of 96 thermocouples. The temperature difference between the hot and cold side area is preserved in the range of 23 K and 191 K. The power generation in different types of thermocouples depends on the Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity of each product of the thermoelectric generator. The performances of maximum up to 2072 W and minimum from 243.2 W were observed by both the J-type and Bi2 Te3 materials.