Dynamic performance analysis of a cascaded thermoelectric generator

Rong Shen, Xiaolong Gou, Haoyu Xu and Kuanrong Qiu

Applied Energy, 2017, vol. 203, issue C, 808-815

Abstract: Due to its advantages of small size, wide adaptability and high reliability, thermoelectric power generation (TEG) technology is attracting more and more attention in the application prospects of distributed energy, waste heat recovering and clean electricity supply. However, the promotion of the TEG is hindered by its low energy conversion efficiency which has become the most urgent problem in the TEG system. In order to achieve higher efficiency, a novel cascaded thermoelectric generator system (CTEG) with three-stage thermoelectric generators and its dynamic models based on the energy conservation equation, unsteady heat conduction theory and fluid dynamics were proposed and built. Through experimental data and numerical results, the system dynamic performance and the key parameters which affect the characteristics of the TEG system were analyzed. The results show that the efficiency of the new cascaded TEG system is greatly improved by 21.56% compared with the system with single-stage TEG. Furthermore, this study puts forward guidance for system improvement, and it is encouraging that a more appropriate system configuration could be an important means to further increase the system efficiency. Moreover, this dynamic simulation model can be used in the system design and operating improvement.

Keywords: Cascaded thermoelectric generator; Modeling; Dynamic performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261917308590
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:203:y:2017:i:c:p:808-815

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.06.108

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().