Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Cooling and Heating Conditions on the Performance of Thermoelectric Module

Abstract

Today, the need for energy increases, and fossil fuel resources run out rapidly so energy costs also increase rapidly. The most important feature of fossil fuels is that they consist of hydrocarbon and organic substances containing high levels of carbon. This causes great harm to the world and humanity. In the face of this dangerous situation, world states look for new and clean energy sources. As a result, the trend towards renewable energy sources increases rapidly. In this context, TE (thermoelectric) module is an important source to convert heat to electrical energy. The amount of electricity generation from heat depends on the temperature difference between surfaces of the TE module. The electrical power obtained from heat increases with the increase of temperature difference. This work aims to investigate numerically the heat transfer and electricity generation performance of a 2 3 -based TE module embedded with cylindrical pin-fin heat sink under the different hot surface and air temperature conditions with different air velocities. The results were evaluated and discussed with parameters such as temperature distribution, power input, power output, voltage output, current output, temperature difference, total thermal resistance, conversion efficiency and Nusselt number according to Reynolds numbers. In all analyses, it was observed that performance of the heat transfer and electricity generation of the TE module increase with the increase in Reynolds number. The highest conversion efficiency was obtained generally at surface temperatures of 200℃, specifically at air temperature of 5℃ and the Reynolds number of 20000. In addition, it was observed that the temperature difference between the surfaces of the TE module is not sufficient alone to give good performance and besides, it is necessary to keep the cold surface at low temperature.