Optimized Thermal Design of Small ΔT Thermoelectric Generators Mississippi State Univ

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Stevens, James W., author.

Conference Name:

34th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (1999-08-02 : Vancouver, Canada)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 1999

Summary:

The daily variation in air temperature is large compared with the temperature changes a short distance below the surface of the ground. In theory, a heat engine can be arranged to produce electricity from this temperature difference. In practice, the thermal efficiency of such a device will be low because of the small temperature differences involved. An energy harvesting device could produce sensor-scale amounts of electrical power by using a thermoelectric generator operating between the air and ground temperatures. This paper describes a proposed ground-air thermoelectric heat engine along with a procedure for the approximate optimal design of such a device. Simple design and performance equations based on thermal resistances of the thermoelectric module and coldand hot-side heat exchangers are derived and presented

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

1999-01-2564

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license