Numerical Simulation Of Radiation Heat Loss In AMTEC

Alkali Metal Thermal to Electric Converter-AMTEC is a new direct conversion thermoelectric technology. Because of its efficient(efficiency), stable(stability), no noise and no vibration characteristics and so on, more and more countries began their research on AMTEC. How to improve thermoelectric conversion efficiency of AMTEC is one of the key technical problems, and the impact of thermal radiation loss is one of the main factors of AMTEC efficiency. This paper study the different materials and different shading cover installation angle (SCIA) for reducing the thermal radiation loss of AMTEC based on CFD.The different 3D models and geometries of SCIA were built in this paper, and DO thermal radiation model was used for simulating radiation in AMTEC. The main work of this paper are:(1) Theoretical analysis of factors affecting the efficiency of AMTEC,(2) effects of different SCIA on thermal radiation, (3) effects of different materials of shell and shading cover at the same emissivity, (4) effects of different emissivity and numbers of bases were discussed.The results show that, the thermal radiation effect must be considered when study the AMETC thermal field. The thermal radiation loss is minimum when SCIA is 30°, because it could make more radio energy return to the outer surface of BASE, the efficiency of AMTEC will be increased. The energy loss and the thermal radiation loss through the cold side and the shell will be reduced when molybdenum is used, and the temperature of bases will be increased. The thermal radiation loss is decreased when emissivity is decreased.