Semiconductor Thermoelectric Generating System Research And Electrothermal Test-bench Design

With the increasing of automobile consumption energy, we pay more attention to the energy saving of automobile. Automobile engine cogeneration not only is an effective way to solve the Energy Issue, but also a very good energy saving way. The use of semiconductor thermoelectric generator on the residual-heat utilization of automobile engine has the very broad prospect of application. The utilization method of semiconductor thermoelectric generator on the automobile engine and the system design is the focus of research.In this article, through a simplified model, I calculate the output power and thermoelectric conversion efficiency of the semiconductor thermoelectric generator in theory and analysis the influence of the cooling method and arrange way to the output power and thermoelectric conversion efficiency of the semiconductor thermoelectric generator. The output power and thermoelectric conversion efficiency of the semiconductor thermoelectric generator will increase along with the continuous increase of temperature difference between the cold and heat ends,and reduce along with the continuous increase of the current、equivalent internal resistance and thermal contact resistance. But when it uses forced air cooling, the output power and thermoelectric conversion efficiency of the semiconductor thermoelectric generator also relates to the temperature gradient and thermal resistance of the radiator and the speed of the fan.In this article, through constructing an electrothermal thermoelectric generating test-bed, it completes the experiment of the performance of thermoelectric generator with different types of cooling and load, and then conducts a comparative analysis. In the case that with water-cooling or forced air cooling, the maximum open voltage of the thermoelectric generator assembly is26.4V or8.234V, the maximum short-circuit current is4.3A or1.33A, the maximum output power is18.2W or4.64W, the maximum thermoelectric conversion efficiency is4.68%or1.19%. Thus it can be seen that the performance of the thermoelectric generator assembly with water-cooling is much better than the performance with forced air cooling.In this article, it designs a voltage-stabilizing circuit with a stabilizing voltage chip LM2577-ADJ and designs a charging circuit of lead-acid battery of12V with the special charging chip. Then it finishes the design of a simple automobile waste heat semiconductor thermoelectric generator system and the actual operation test. It designs to arrange thermoelectric generator with different material on the basis of the temperature distribution of the auto exhaust pipe. At last, it discusses the feasibility of the automobile waste heat semiconductor thermoelectric generator system with different type of cooling and its application prospect.