Abstract
Current research has led to a significant improvement at the system level of thermoelectric generators (TEG) for automotive applications. The previously low power density could be increased considerably up to 267 W/kg and 478 W/dm3. In addition, the cost–benefit ratio of the technology in the overall system of the vehicle was improved through intensive optimizations on system level. The results presented so far are based on measurement data of single thermoelectric modules (TEM) and simulation of the TEG system. In this paper the high simulative increases at the system level, achieved through a holistic optimization method, are validated by a functional prototype, completely equipped with TEM. Thereby, a functional prototype has been developed and built successfully and measured on a hot gas test bench. In the experiment all TEM show a stable power output and the highest gravimetric power density of automotive TEG systems known to the authors could be measured. Further tests will be performed with the functional prototype as described in the outlook. In addition to the successful tests, the simulation is validated with the detailed measurement data. After adapting the measurement method of the TEM for providing more accurate TEM measurement data as input for the simulation, a suitable match could be achieved between the TEG simulation and the experiment. In the measurement points performed so far, the accuracy of the simulated temperatures reaches more than 95%. The accuracy of the simulated output power is more than 97%.
Highlights
IntroductionOne of the major challenges is to achieve the required reductions in CO2 emissions
In automotive development, one of the major challenges is to achieve the required reductions in CO2 emissions
An overview of the used holistic thermoelectric generators (TEG) optimization method is shown, and the method is described in detail in Ref. 12
Summary
One of the major challenges is to achieve the required reductions in CO2 emissions. Various scenario analyses predict that even in electric vehicle friendly studies, the proportion of vehicles with combustion engines is dominant in future vehicle sales. The prediction of the vehicle sales for 2030 in the study of Ref. 1 and in the meta-study of Ref. 2 has a share of more than 80% of vehicles with internal combustion engines, including a large share of hybrid vehicles. Regardless of whether a conventional or hybrid vehicle concept is used, approximately two thirds of the fuels chemical energy dissipates as waste heat. The technology of thermoelectric generators (TEG) is very promising for waste heat recovery and under investigation for several years, e.g. at the DLR—Institute of Vehicle Concepts in Stuttgart since 2005.7–11
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