Based on the theory of coupled transport of electricity and heat in metals, we present a numerical method allowing us to calculate the thermoelectric power (TEP) (Seebeck coefficient) of a two-dimensional metal/metal composite structure. Depending on the arrangement, the surface fraction and the geometry of the two components, the temperature, the potential and the thermoelectric current distributions are calculated within the structure. The apparent TEP is then deduced. In order to validate this numerical model, various metal/metal composite structures were experimented on. The data resulting from the numerical simulations proved to be in excellent agreement with the experimental results. This method of calculation contributes to a better understanding of TEP measurements when done for the characterization of multi-constituent materials. We show that it may also be applied to calculate the current distribution in inhomogeneous materials subject to a thermal gradient, and hence contribute to a better understanding of results obtained by the thermoelectric method with magnetic readout.

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In this paper, we report some numerical analysis results obtained in the study of the thermoelectric power (TEP) of 2D two phase materials. Based on the numerical resolution of transport equations, we compute the TEP of different composite structures. These were numerically simulated using a grain growth model. We show that the ratio of the electrical conductivity of the two phases is the relevant parameter for metallic material which is verified by the Wiedeman–Franz law. We observe that for a low ratio, the TEP of the composite follows a simple rule of mixture, whereas for a higher value, a S-shaped curve is obtained. Applied to the case of atoms precipitation in a metallic matrix, we show that for a low fraction of precipitates, their effect can be neglected when compared with the variation induced by the atoms precipitation. We found that an induced anisotropy in the shape of the grains leads to a strong deviation from the rule of mixture.

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