Optimization Of Thermoelectric Generator Performance

With the rapid development of the industrial and internet technologies, traditional hardware industry based on large data and cloud computing becomes the basic new control unit in intelligent, integrated, and virtual realistic technologies. Thermoelectric generators have advantages of no-moving parts, stable performances, low noises, and flexible volumes. They provide a stable power supply for intelligent hardware systems and numerous remote sensors of the Internet of things, as an indispensable source of power. Different from electrochemical cells and photovoltaic cells, thermoelectric generators use a temperature difference as the power source, such as car exhaust, industrial waste heat, radioisotopes and other different grade heat sources, and convert thermal energy into electrical energy. It becomes the green and reliable new energy generation device of the 21 st century.In this thesis, for the low power output and large thickness of the semiconductor thermoelectric generator, optimization design of thermal insulation board, galvanic arms, deflector, the solder layer and other components are performed through simulation. Temperature gradient, face length ratio, thermal resistance's influences on performances of device are discussed in depth. The design principle of mutli-gradient TEG is also proposed in this paper for the first time. A novel thermoelectric generator is composed of on-chip thermal insulation panels and 2N thermoelectric power units, each with left and right arms of the thermocouple. The left and right baffles and arm thermocouples are rectangular with an area of(0.1 ~ 10 mm2) ×(0.1 ~ 10 mm2), and a face-to-length ratio of 0.52 ~ 8.33 mm. The concentration-gradient thermoelectric materials are adopted in the device. Thin generator with a large power output can be effectively obtained with significant reduction of the size and costs. Such a novel design not only stabilizes operation under various temperature gradients and load conditions, but also increases the rated power of the matched load, especially for the low-quality heat source, the narrow application space and the big working load of the rated power.