Design of flexible thermoelectric generator as human body sensor

Abstract

Flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG) became an attractive technology that has been widely used especially for curved surfaces applications. This study aims an optimal design of a flexible TEG for human body application. The flexible TEG is part of a sensor and supplies required electrical power for data transmission by the sensor. The TEG module includes ink based thermoelements made of nano-carbon bismuth telluride materials. One flexible fin conducts the body heat to the TEG module and there are two fins that exchange the heat from the cold side of the TEG to the ambient. The proposed design is supposed to produce 10 μV to feed the used sensor in the thermoelectric system. In this design, the effect of heat transfer coefficient due to natural convection on the power generation is studied.