Evaluation of Thermoelectric Generators under Mismatching Conditions

Daniel Sanin-Villa, Oscar D. Monsalve-Cifuentes and Elkin E. Henao-Bravo
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Daniel Sanin-Villa: Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechatronics and Electromechanics, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín 050034, Colombia
Oscar D. Monsalve-Cifuentes: Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechatronics and Electromechanics, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín 050034, Colombia
Elkin E. Henao-Bravo: Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechatronics and Electromechanics, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín 050034, Colombia

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-20

Abstract: Due to the wide usability of thermoelectric generators (TEG) in the industry and research fields, it is plausible that mismatching conditions are present on the thermal surfaces of a TEG device, which induces negative-performance effects due to uneven surface temperature distributions. For this reason, the objective of this study is to characterize numerically the open-circuit electric output voltage of a TEG device when a mismatching condition is applied to both the cold and hot sides of the selected N and P-type semiconductor material Bi 0.4 Sb 1.6 Te 3 . A validated numerical simulation paired with a parametric study is conducted using the Thermal-Electric module of ANSYS 2020 R1, for which different thermal boundary and mismatching conditions are applied while considering the temperature-dependent thermoelectrical properties of the N and P-type material. The results show an inverse relationship between the open-circuit voltage and the mismatching temperature difference. When a mismatching condition is applied on the hot side of the TEG device, the temperature-dependent electrical resistance has lower values, deriving in higher voltage results (linear tendency) compared to a mismatching condition applied to the cold side (non-linear tendency).

Keywords: thermoelectric generator; TEG; mismatch; mismatching condition; numerical simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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