Performance of a Composite Thermoelectric Generator with Different Arrangements of SiGe, BiTe and PbTe under Different Configurations

Entropy

Alexander Vargas-Almeida¹  Miguel Angel Olivares-Robles²  Federico Méndez Lavielle¹ 

[1] Departamento de Termofluidos, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico 04510, Mexico; E-Mails:;Instituto Politecnico Nacional, SEPI ESIME-CUL, Av. Santa Ana 1000, Culhuacan, Coyoacan 04430, Mexico

关键词: thermoelectric module;    thermoelectric properties;    figure of merit;   

DOI  :  10.3390/e17117387

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

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 meritfor CTEG is obtained as a result of these considerations. We suggest an optimum configuration.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.