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Abstract—There has been great interest on exploring the a power control device to deliver the desired electrical output.
potential of waste heat extraction using thermoelectric generator Apart from the developments of thermoelectric materials with
(TEG) system on marine application, due to great amount of larger ZT value,
exhaust gas volume, many potential locations with consistent S2σ
high temperature and availability of infinite cooling sea water. ZT = T (1)
To improve the overall output performance of TEG system κ
in terms of efficiency, proper system level engineering and
integration have been considered crucial besides development where S is Seebeck coefficient, σ is electrical conductivity, κ
of thermoelectric materials with larger ZT (figure of merit) is thermal conductivity and T is the temperature of material,
value and optimal control strategy of electrical interface sys-
tem. In this work, preliminary experimental investigation and and control strategy of power generation system [4]–[6], it
numerical modelling optimization on the cooling system for a was acknowledged that proper system level integration of
thermoelectric module level device are conducted. The predicted these four components is crucial for high-efficiency TEG
open-circuit voltages by thermoelectric simulation for device with implementation. Tian et al. [7] indicated that TEG system
conventional tubed water cooling plate are in good agreement should be developed integrally to match heat flux through
with the measured experimental data for various hot exhaust
temperatures. The model is then revised for further simulation to every component for the optimized system level performance,
optimize the cooling plate design by examining detailed thermal which is arguably more urgent than improving ZT value of
performance and electrical current-voltage characteristics for the materials. LeBlan [8] had compared between TEG system
thermoelectric module device with varying electrical load. These efficiency and thermoelectric material efficiency for three
investigations demonstrate that a local effective cooling system is potential waste heat recovery applications of water heater,
important for high efficiency TEG implementation. This module-
level observation serves to perceive how TEG system integrates as automotive exhaust and industrial furnace. It is shown that
well as indicate potential improvement for TEG power conversion the TEG system efficiency is 32%, 33% and 59% lower than
system. With good accuracy, the employed simulation tool is the conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials for these
capable of rapidly characterizing TEG system level performance three applications respectively.
in future work. There have been various research activities in characterizing
thermoelectric module level device that consists of heater, full-
I. I NTRODUCTION
scale thermoelectric module and water cooling plate in order
Applying waste heat recovery technologies in marine appli- to identify factors governing the TEG system engineering and
cation have drawn great attention for their potential to address integration. Freunek et al. [9] had built a test rig to verify their
growing fossil fuel costs as well as stringent emission regula- proposed physical model of TEG, using hot water as a heat
tions [1]. Technologies, such as Organic Rankine Cycle(ORC), source and heat sink for heat dissipation. Considering a wide
Turbo Compounding [2], are being explored to increase the range of working temperature and external electrical load,
fuel efficiency by reutilizing great amount of exhaust waste Sandoz-Rosado and Stevens [10] had developed a thermo-
heat from marine power system. Thermoelectric generator electric module test stand which includes the monitoring sys-
(TEG) is a solid state technology that produces electricity tem for measurement of temperature, electrical performance,
when there is a temperature difference across the junctions heat rates and mechanical loading. Casano et al. [11] and
of thermoelectric materials . Considering the presence of Montecucco et al. [12] also had designed test systems to
many potential waste heat recovery locations with consistent assess thermoelectric module device performance with varied
temperature and unlimited supply of sea water for cooling the success. Besides experimental investigation, many researchers
TEG system, there is significant potential for applying TEG also conducted numerical analysis to understand the mechani-
system in marine application [3]. cal, thermal and electrical behaviors of realistic thermoelectric
A TEG system consists of thermoelectric modules (array of module device based on finite element modelling. Turenne
thermoelectric material pairs), a hot-side heat extraction sys- et al. [13] had performed a thermomechanical simulation to
tem, a cold-side heat dissipation system or cooling system and evaluate the mechanical stress distribution over thermoelectric
2
the numerical modelling. Taking into account the ohmic heat-
ing and thermoelectric conversion, the commercial software
TM
ANSYS Multiphysics thermoelectric system is employed to
5 T=120oC
solve the electric charge and energy equations using the finite T=180oC
element method. The measured temperatures at the bottom T=225oC
Current (A)
simulation. The electrical voltage, current and output power 3
characteristics are examined for different electrical loads. To
verify the simulation results, the comparison of open circuit 2
voltage at various temperature differences is made with the
experimental results.
1
0
6.5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Experiment Voltage (V)
6.0 Simulation
5.5
180o C and 225o C across thermoelectrical module device.
5.0
4.5
4.0
predict the performance of thermoelectric module device with
good accuracy.
3.5 By varying the electrical load, further simulation analysis
3.0
is conducted to investigate the electrical characteristics for
maximum power output of module device. Fig. 5 and 6
2.5 show the voltage-current and voltage-output power curves at
100 125 150 175 200 225 250
temperature difference of 120o C, 180o C and 225o C. It is
T (oC)
observed that the current characteristic is inversely proportion-
al to voltage with a negative linear relationship. The higher
Fig. 4: Comparison of Open-circuit voltage output of the temperature difference means the higher the open circuit
thermoelectric module device at various temperature voltage as well as the higher the short circuit current. From
difference between experimental measurement and the voltage-output power curve, it is possible to see that the
simulation analysis maximum output power is obtained when the load voltage is
3
T=120oC
5
T=180oC
T=225oC
Tubed cold plate
4
Current (A)
3
half of the open-circuit voltage for any temperature difference. Fig. 9: Electrical Voltage-current curves at various
To investigate the impacts of cold-side heat dissipation temperature difference for thermoelectric module device with
system, the temperature field for the module device is ana- new flat groove and plate design.
lyzed to evaluate the cooling efficiency of conventional tubed
water cooling plate at temperature difference ΔT =225o C. As
shown in Fig.7 (aluminum base of cold plate and ceramic
cover of thermoelectric module are hidden for visualization 8
T=120oC
of internal temperature field), the temperature at the cold T=180oC
7 T=225oC
side of thermoelectric elements is not evenly distributed. The Tubed cold plate
thermoelectric pairs under cooling tube have the same cooling 6
water temperature. Comparatively, the uncovered thermoelec-
5
Power (W)
4
tailed information about the voltage, current flow and relevant
Joule effects within thermoelectric module. Fig.11 to Fig.13
show the voltage, current density and Joule heat distribution at
maximum power point with ΔT =225o C for the new module
device. As seen from Fig.11, the electric voltage increases
linearly from negative lead to positive one since thermoelectric
elements are connected electrically in series. In Fig. 12,
the peak total current density is located at the thin copper
layers of thermoelectric module because of its higher electrical
conductivity compared the thermoelectric materials(refer Table
1). Consequently, the thermoelectric material pairs with much
larger resistivity subject to the maximum Joule heat or ohmic
heat as illustrated in Fig.13. Those information and results are
Fig. 11: Electrical voltage contour within thermoelectric crucial for the reliability study and mechanical stress analysis
module at maximum power point with ΔT =225o C of TEG system [13] which are out of scope of this work.
5
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