TY - JOUR
T1 - Performance Analysis of Thermoelectric Modules Consisting of Square Truncated Pyramid Elements Under Constant Heat Flux
AU - Oki, Sae
AU - Natsui, Shungo
AU - Suzuki, Ryosuke O.
N1 - Funding Information:
The program used here was originally coded by Dr. Min Chen at Aalborg University, Denmark, and revised by Mr. Takeyuki Fujisaka at Hokkaido University (now at Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Co., Japan), and was modified specifically for this paper. This work was financially supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, No. 26630490), and The Thermal & Electric Energy Technology Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.
PY - 2018/6/1
Y1 - 2018/6/1
N2 - System design of a thermoelectric (TE) power generation module is pursued in order to improve the TE performance. Square truncated pyramid shaped P–N pairs of TE elements are connected electronically in series in the open space between two flat insulator boards. The performance of the TE module consisting of 2-paired elements is numerically simulated using commercial software and original TE programs. Assuming that the heat radiating into the hot surface is regulated, i.e., the amount of heat from the hot surface to the cold one is steadily constant, as it happens for solar radiation heating, the performance is significantly improved by changing the shape and the alignment pattern of the elements. When the angle θ between the edge and the base is smaller than 72°, and when the cold surface is kept at a constant temperature, two patterns in particular, amongst the 17 studied, show the largest TE power and efficiency. In comparison to other geometries, the smarter square truncated pyramid shape can provide higher performance using a large cold bath and constant heat transfer by heat radiation.
AB - System design of a thermoelectric (TE) power generation module is pursued in order to improve the TE performance. Square truncated pyramid shaped P–N pairs of TE elements are connected electronically in series in the open space between two flat insulator boards. The performance of the TE module consisting of 2-paired elements is numerically simulated using commercial software and original TE programs. Assuming that the heat radiating into the hot surface is regulated, i.e., the amount of heat from the hot surface to the cold one is steadily constant, as it happens for solar radiation heating, the performance is significantly improved by changing the shape and the alignment pattern of the elements. When the angle θ between the edge and the base is smaller than 72°, and when the cold surface is kept at a constant temperature, two patterns in particular, amongst the 17 studied, show the largest TE power and efficiency. In comparison to other geometries, the smarter square truncated pyramid shape can provide higher performance using a large cold bath and constant heat transfer by heat radiation.
KW - Thermoelectric power generation
KW - constant heat flux
KW - numerical simulation
KW - optimum element shape
KW - square truncated pyramid element
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U2 - 10.1007/s11664-017-6055-y
DO - 10.1007/s11664-017-6055-y
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046650727
VL - 47
SP - 3288
EP - 3297
JO - Journal of Electronic Materials
JF - Journal of Electronic Materials
SN - 0361-5235
IS - 6
ER -