Abstract
In this study, we analyze the role of the thermoelectric (TE) properties, namely Seebeck coefficient α, thermal conductivity κ and electrical resistivity ρ, of three different materials in a composite thermoelectric generator (CTEG) under different configurations. The CTEG is composed of three thermoelectric modules (TEMs): (1) two TEMs thermally and electrically connected in series (SC); (2) two branches of TEMs thermally and electrically connected in parallel (PSC); and (3) three TEMs thermally and electrically connected in parallel (TEP). In general, each of the TEMs have different thermoelectric parameters, namely a Seebeck coefficient α, a thermal conductance K and an electrical resistance R. Following the framework proposed recently, we show the effect of: (1) the configuration; and (2) the arrangements of TE materials on the corresponding equivalent figure of merit Zeq and consequently on the maximum power Pmax and efficiency η of the CTEG. Firstly, we consider that the whole system is formed of the same thermoelectric material (α1,K1,R1 = α2,K2,R2 = α3,K3,R3) and, secondly, that the whole system is constituted by only two different thermoelectric materials Entropy 2015, 17 7388 (αi,Ki,Ri ≠ αj ,Kj ,Rj 6= αl,Kl,Rl, where i, j, l can be 1, 2 or 3). In this work, we propose arrangements of TEMs, which clearly have the advantage of a higher thermoelectric figure of merit value compared to a conventional thermoelectric module. A corollary about the Zeq-max for CTEG is obtained as a result of these considerations. We suggest an optimum configuration.
Highlights
Converting heat into electricity is considered as a way for the recovery of wasted energy in various processes [1,2], such as natural gas combustion, oil industry, automobile exhausts, heat treatment furnaces for metal and heat generated by domestic heaters and stoves
Our main results can be expressed in the following corollary: In the design of a composite thermoelectric generator CTEG composed of three thermoelectric modules (TEMs), two aspects should be considered: (i) There exists a thermal-electrical connection between TEMs, which have the maximum value of
We have studied the role of the thermoelectric properties on the equivalent thermoelectric figure of merit of a composed thermoelectric system
Summary
Converting heat into electricity is considered as a way for the recovery of wasted energy in various processes [1,2], such as natural gas combustion, oil industry, automobile exhausts, heat treatment furnaces for metal and heat generated by domestic heaters and stoves. The Seebeck coefficient α is the generated voltage per unit of temperature This coefficient is a main property of the material, and it is related to the carrier charge transport. We consider a thermoelectric system composed of conventional and segmented TEMs connected in different ways To achieve this goal, we use the new approach proposed by Goupil and Apertet [17,18], in which a thermoelectric module is considered as an equivalent thermal-electrical circuit (see Figure 1). We use the new approach proposed by Goupil and Apertet [17,18], in which a thermoelectric module is considered as an equivalent thermal-electrical circuit (see Figure 1) Following these methods, we derive the figure of merit of these systems. We show the obtained results by applying this new approach
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