Research On Integration Design Of Vehicle Waste Heat Thermoelectric Generation And Three-way Catalytic Converter

With the continuously increase in the vehicle capacity, global environmentalissues and energy issues continue to worsen, energy conservation and emissionreduction become the development trend of the automotive industry. Automobileexhaust heat recovery and utilization is an important way to realize energy savingtechnologies, and thermoelectric generation technology can turn exhaust heat intoelectricity with the advantages of noise-free, pollution-free and no moving parts,which has become the research hotspot of many car companies and researchinstitutions. Currently a typical automobile exhaust-based thermoelectric generator(TEG) is attached to the exhaust system, which interferes chassis arrangement in thefuture automobile application and increases the vehicle layout difficulties, also is poorcompatibility with the engine exhaust system.According to the summary of the research situation about automobileexhaust-based TEG and achieved research results of our work team in this paper, thenew structure integrated the TEG and the engine three-way catalytic converter isproposed. According to the working requirements of thermoelectric modules andcatalyst, the design of thermoelectric catalytic power generator (TECG) is researched,wherein the integrated heat exchanger has hexagon-section. This new device has heatintegration and exhaust gas purification function to be simplified and lightweight forvehicle application to achieve efficient automobile exhaust heat recovery.Based on the performance of the heat integration and exhaust gas purification ofthe integrated heat exchanger, the flow field and thermal field are analyzed. On theplatform of CFX, the factors that influence the performance of the integrated heatexchanger is analyzed in the terms of the surface temperature distribution, the carriervelocity distribution, pressure field, including expansion angle of the inlet tube,shrink angle of the outlet tube, installation location of the carrier, the spacing ofcoupling carriers and inlet velocity vector. The conclusions can make the structuraldesign and optimization direction clearly. In order to both maximize the purify andheat integration, the design and optimization process requires comprehensiveconsideration of the above factors.The heat-flux coupling simulation model of the cylindrical TECG is established by CFD software, including integrated heat exchanger, thermoelectric modules andcooling water tanks. The thermal fields of the parts are obtained to present the processof energy flow between the TECG parts. The effect that the thermoelectric moduleswhich takes heat from the integrated heat exchanger have on the temperature of thecarrier is analyzed. The average temperature reduces8K to extend the catalystlight-off time. Based on the average temperature of the two sides of thethermoelectric modules obtained from the thermal field simulation and thethermoelectric modules’ topology, the TECG output power mathematical model isestablished in Simulink. The maximum output power of the TECG is calculated to be194.1W model under the normal condition. And the energy recovery is relativelyeffective.