Heat Sink Design for Thermoelectric Generation in Spindle Unit

Abstract

Thermoelectric energy harvesting is emerging as a promising alternative energy source to drive wireless sensors in mechanical, civil, and aerospace engineering systems. Typically, the waste heat from spindle units of machine tools creates obvious potential for thermoelectric generation. The structure of heat sinks on a thermoelectric generator has a great effect on the output voltage of the thermoelectric generator due to the temperature difference between hot and cold sides induced by heat transfer, so several typical structures of heat sinks are studied under different rotation speed of the spindle. According to the simulation study, the thermal resistance of heat sinks was presented. In the experiment, the output voltages of a thermoelectric generator were measured under different rotation speed with different structures of heat sinks. Experiment and simulation shows that the two pipes structure of the heat sink can help the generator to produce more power.