Performance Analysis of Thermoelectric Modules Using Polyhedron Elements

• Meng Xiang-ning

  School of Materials and Metallurgy, Northeastern University Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University

• Suzuki Ryosuke O.

  Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University

Abstract

Our previous work showed that the utilization of polyhedron elements has better advantages than the parallelogram elements in the thermoelectric (TE) generation. Especially a high efficiency of converting heat into electricity can be achieved at an optimal shape. This study proposed new TE module configurations consisting of polyhedron elements, and examined the TE performance of them by conducting the finite-element analysis. The simulation results show that the performance of TE module in the case of symmetrically arranging the polyhedron elements is slightly higher than that of arranging elements in parallel because of the more homogeneous heat flux and current density. The heat transfer and electric resistance, respectively, depend on the module configuration and element shape, and affect the TE performance simultaneously. TE performance increases significantly when the internal resistance becomes smaller and the heat diffuses slower.

Journal

• MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS

  MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS 56 (7), 1092-1095, 2015

  The Japan Institute of Metals and Materials

Keywords

• thermoelectric generation
• module configurations
• polyhedron elements
• finite-element analysis

Details

• CRID: 1390001204253529472
• NII Article ID: 130005083556
• NII Book ID: AA1151294X
• DOI: 10.2320/matertrans.e-m2015808
• ISSN: 13475320
• ISSN: 13459678
• HANDLE: 2115/73959
• NDL BIB ID: 026564856
• Web Site: https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R000000004-I026564856
• Web Site: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/matertrans/56/7/56_E-M2015808/_pdf
• Text Lang: en
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • IRDB
  • NDL
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed