Performance of a thermoelectric generator system for waste heat recovery utilizing plate fin heat sink in bronze ingot casting industry

Abstract

This study presents a numerical investigation of the performance evaluation of a waste heat recovery (WHR) system from a bronze ingot casting mold via a thermoelectric generator (TEG). A rectangular plate fin heat sink is installed at the hot side of the TEG to recover the waste heat from the casting mold while the flow direction of the flue gas is found to be normal to the fin base. A multi-physics numerical model, which couples the governing equations of fluid, thermal and electrical models are presented and solved by using ANSYS 19.2 software. The numerical results for the thermal characteristics of TEG and its power output show good agreement with the experimental results. The study has been performed to analyze the effect of different fin parameters such as fin height ( H f = 12.6–52.6 mm) and fin number ( N f = 15 to 21), and flue gas parameters such as inlet velocity ( V in = 0.5–7 m/s) and inlet temperature ( T in = 550–650 °C) on the performance of the TEG system during WHR. Results indicate that TEG module power increases with the increase in fin height, fin number, inlet flue gas velocity, and temperature. The maximum net power output and maximum net efficiency are found to be 18.83W and 2.33% at inlet flow velocities of 5 m/s and 3 m/s, respectively. In addition, significant radiation has been observed through the numerical investigation. The fraction of radiation effect ranged from 5.01% to 24.15% in the test conditions.