Abstract
A significant problem in thermo-electric generators is the thermal design of the heat sink because it affects the performance of thermo-electric modules. As compared to conventional cooling systems, heat pipe heat sink have numerous advantages. Some of these advantages are: high heat-transfer rates; absence of moving parts and lack of auxiliary consumption (passive system). This paper presents the analysis of power generation using the combination of heat pipes and thermo-electric generators. The aim is to improve power output by an appropriate design of the heat sink. The average geometrical parameters of heat sink (fin height, fin space and fin thickness) were obtained from data collected from previous studies closely similar to this prototype. The prototype was tested and the temperature, voltage and current data were collected. All data were recorded by using a temperature data recorder, power meter and multimeter. It was found that the highest maximum power output was 1.925 watts at a temperature difference of 85°C. However, the prototype did not achieve the maximum output expected. This was a result of limitation of TEG model (where only one TEG was used) and the limitation of the performance of the prototype. The prototype successfully generated enough power to charge a cell phone and laptop when connected to two or three TEGs. Moreover the heat pipe heat sink needs optimization to meet the design output from the manufacturer of the TEG at hot side temperature and cold side temperature
Highlights
Energy demand will keep increasing with the rapid development of technologies and industrialization
There are a number of environmental issues related to fossil fuels production and utilization at both local and global scales
It was found that the highest temperature difference was 830C, For a low temperature difference, between hot side of Thermo-electric generator (TEG) and cold side, the main cause was perhaps due to lack of heat sink design because it was observed that the temperature at the fins side reached almost 1000C during the end of the testing
Summary
Energy demand will keep increasing with the rapid development of technologies and industrialization. Researchers have shown increased interest using thermo-electric technology in improving waste recovery efficiency over the last three decades. This has been made possible using a variety of heat-producing processes[3]. TEG heat exchanger’s (heat sink) lack of design is one reason that causes shortcoming in the conversion efficiency of the TEG These days, there is a profound research in heat sinks with heat pipes that enhances heat sinks significantly more, with a small temperature drop, because of the utilization of the latent heat of an internal fluid[8]. Heat pipe heat sink (HPHS) is the most suitable heat exchanger for the medium temperature range below 300oC with TEG (Energy Efficiency Guide for Industry in Asia)[9] which is the authors’ work scope. The average geometrical size of heat sink was obtained depending on data collected from previous studies that were closely similar with this prototype
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