Performance enhancement of the motorcycle exhaust thermoelectric generator - Optimization of the hot-side heat exchanger configuration

Abstract

The article investigates the influences of three structural parameters of the hot-side heat exchanger (HHE), including the fin quantity, height, and thickness on the mean temperature of its base. The HHE is integrated into the thermoelectric generator unit (TGU), which uses motorcycle exhaust gas as the heat source. These structural parameters have been optimized by using computational fluid dynamics simulation to enhance the heat absorption through the HHE base to maximize the electric power of the TGU. The findings show that these three HHE structural parameters affect both the convection coefficient and the heat transfer area of the HHE. Increasing the fin quantity and height or reducing the fin thickness leads to an increase in the heat transfer surface area of the HHE. On the other hand, the convection coefficient increases by increasing the fin thickness and quantity or decreasing the fin height. The HHE, which has a fin quantity of 21, fin thickness of 1 mm and fin height of 42 mm, produced the maximum TGU electricity power by 8.2 % higher than the original configuration. This study has significant implications for improving the TGU performance and decreasing the size of the HHE configuration, which makes it more compact and lower manufacturing costs.