Design And Analysis Of Thermal Protection Systemwith Thermoelectric Converse Function

Multi-Functional Thermal Protection System(MFTPS) is more structurally efficient than conventional TPS concepts, and would be highly desirable for high-speed long-endurance flight in future. The integration of thermoelectric generators(TEGs) into a TPS can converse thermal energy into electricity, holding the potential to harvest free energy and save weight by reducing on board power system. On the motivation, this thesis focus on the design and analysis of thermal protection system with thermoelectric converse function.The thesis starts with the analysis of a single Bi2Te3 PN junction, noticing the couping between the thermal and electric field caused by the Seebeck and Pelter effect, obtaining the governing equation, deriving the expression of power outout and conversion efficiency. We show that as long as an appreciable temperature difference can be created over a short thermoelectric leg, good power output can be achieved. In order to validate the accuracy of numerical simulation, design a steady-state thermoelectric conversion experiment.Besides the improvement of thermoelectric materials, structral design and TEG’s optimization are crucial factor for efficient heat-to-electric power conversion and one of the key challenges is how to creat a large temperature across a thermoelectric generator. Thus, we design a segmented thermoelectric generator embedded into TPS with high performance thermoelectric materials, analyze and validate the equivalent thermal properties of the phase change material which is a cold side for TEG. Then we formulate on computational and analytical modeling, analyze the thermal, electrical response of the structure, derive the optimum geometry with the maximum power output.With the consequence of verifying the reality on the basis of feasible materials, we design a laminate TPS with thermoelectric generating module, analyze the thermal, mechanical, electrical response of the structure with considering of the insulation and phase change materials’ thickness. The experimental samples validating the design of thermoelectric performance in thermal protection system are processed, using a gas-fired heating platform to do experimental validation.