Optimized thermal design for excellent wearable thermoelectric generator

Hu, Kai; Yang, Dongwang; Hui, Yueyue; Zhang, Huazhang; Song, Rongguo; Liu, Yutian; Wang, Jiang; Wen, Pin; He, Daping; Liu, Xiaopan; Yan, Yonggao; Tang, Xinfeng

doi:10.1039/d2ta06966k

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Material property parameter setting: "FR4" from the material library of COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6 is used as the material of the circuit board, "6063 [solid]" alloy is used as the material of the heat sink fin, "Air" is used as the material of the fluid heat transfer medium. The rest materials in the model are custom materials and the specific material properties [56] are shown in Table 1.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation on Thermoelectric Cooling of Core Power Devices in Air Conditioning

Wang¹,

Hu²,

Tang³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Air conditioners are indispensable necessities in daily life and industrial production. However, the heat generation of their internal core power components can limit their performance release. In this work, we explore the application of thermoelectric coolers (TECs) in the field of power device heat dissipation through finite element simulation. First, we geometrically modeled the structure and typical operating conditions of core power devices in air conditioners. We compared the temperature fields in air cooling and TEC active cooling modes for high power consumption power devices in a 319 K operating environment. The simulation results show that in the single air cooling mode, the maximum temperature of the 173.8 W power device reaches 394.4 K and the average temperature reaches 373.9 K, which exceeds its rated operating temperature of 368.1 K. However, after adding TEC, the maximum temperature of the power device drops to 331.8 K at an operating current of 7.5 A and the average temperature of the device is 326.5 K. It indicates that TEC active cooling has a significant effect on the temperature control of the power device. At the same time, we also studied the effect of TEC working current on the temperature control effect of power devices. For TEC, there is a minimum working current of 5 A; when it is less than 5 A, TEC has no cooling effect; the cooling effect of TEC increases with an increase in working current. When the TEC working current is 10 A, the average temperature of the power device can be reduced to 292.9 K. This study has made a meaningful exploration of the application of TEC in chip temperature control and heat dissipation, providing a new solution for chip thermal management and accurate temperature control.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation on Thermoelectric Cooling of Core Power Devices in Air Conditioning

Wang¹,

Hu²,

Tang³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…32,[211][212][213][214][215][216][217][218][219][220][221][222][223][224][225][226][227][228][229] Additionally, the use of small-sized solidstate inorganic thermoelectric materials as thermoelectric legs can provide relatively higher performance to the device, although their flexibility might be more limited. [230][231][232][233][234][235][236][237][238][239][240][241][242][243][244][245][246][247] Furthermore, the rational design of device structures and the use of appropriate flexible heat sinks are also important research focuses for designing vertically oriented F-TEDs. 248 Figure 8A illustrates a tubular F-TED for energy harvesting from hot water.…”

Section: Thermoelectric Devices Composed Of Inorganic-based Flexible ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, designing such F‐TEDs involves considering the use of flexible inorganic thermoelectric materials as thermoelectric legs to impart overall flexibility to the device 32,211–229 . Additionally, the use of small‐sized solid‐state inorganic thermoelectric materials as thermoelectric legs can provide relatively higher performance to the device, although their flexibility might be more limited 230–247 . Furthermore, the rational design of device structures and the use of appropriate flexible heat sinks are also important research focuses for designing vertically oriented F‐TEDs 248 …”

Section: Vertical Flexible Thermoelectric Devices Composed Of Inorgan...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in flexible inorganic thermoelectrics

Shi,

Cao,

Chen

et al. 2023

EcoEnergy

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Solid‐state bismuth telluride‐based thermoelectric devices enable the generation of electricity from temperature differences and have been commercially applied in various fields. However, in many scenarios, the surface of the heat source is not flat. Therefore, it is crucial to develop flexible thermoelectric materials and devices to efficiently utilize heat sources and expand their applications. Compared with organic thermoelectric materials and devices, inorganic flexible thermoelectric materials and devices have much higher thermoelectric performance and stability. Considering the rapid development in this research field, we carefully summarize the design principles, structures, and thermoelectric properties of inorganic flexible materials and their devices reported in the recent 3 years, including sulfides, selenides, tellurides, and composite materials designed based on these inorganics. The structural designs of flexible thermoelectric devices based on micro‐sized bulk materials are also carefully summarized. Additionally, we overview the mechanical stability and methods for reducing internal resistance for designs of inorganic flexible thermoelectric devices. In the end, we provide outlooks on future research directions for inorganic flexible thermoelectric materials and devices. This review will help guide thermoelectric researchers, beginners, and students.

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“…The module is formed by connecting eight thermoelectric devices in series with copper wires and soldering them to a 0.1 mm thick silver foil using AuSn solder to achieve a "rigid device-flexible connection" as shown in Figure 1C. The detailed preparation process can also be checked in our previous article [5,8,17,53]. As shown in Figure 2, increasing convective heat transfer coefficient h at cold end leads to an increase in temperature difference between two ends of device which provides guidance for optimizing power generation performance of device in wearable scenario.…”

Section: W-teg Module Fabricatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Performance Wearable Bi2Te3-Based Thermoelectric Generator

Xing¹,

Tang²,

Wang³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Wearable thermoelectric generators (w-TEGs) convert thermal energy into electrical energy to realize self-powering of intelligent electronic devices, thus reducing the burden of battery replacement and charging, and improving the usage time and efficiency of electronic devices. Through finite element simulation, this study successfully designed high-performance thermoelectric generator and made it into wearable thermoelectric module by adopting “rigid device - flexible connection” method. It was found that higher convective heat transfer coefficient on cold-end leads to larger effective temperature difference and better power generation performance of device in typical wearable scenario. Meanwhile, at same convective heat transfer coefficient on the cold-end, longer TE leg length leads to larger temperature difference established at both ends of device, larger device output power and open-circuit voltage. However, when the convective heat transfer coefficient increases to a certain level, optimization effect of increasing TE leg length on device power generation performance will gradually diminish. For devices with fixed temperature difference between two ends, longer TE leg length leads to higher resistance of TEG, resulting in lower device output power but slight increase in open-circuit voltage. Finally, sixteen 16×4×2 mm2 TEGs (L=1.38 mm, W=0.6 mm) and two modules were fabricated and tested. At hot end temperature Th=33 ℃ and cold end temperature Tc=30 ℃, the actual maximum output power Pout of TEG is about 0.2 mW, and the actual maximum output power Pout of TEG module is about 1.602 mW, which is highly consistent with the simulated value. This work brings great convenience to research and development of wearable thermoelectric modules and provides new, environmentally friendly and efficient power solution for wearable devices.

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Optimized thermal design for excellent wearable thermoelectric generator

Abstract: The development of wearable thermoelectric generators (w-TEGs) toward light weight, economy and high power generation performance can provide more opportunities for their application in self-powered wearable electronics. The existing w-TEGs...

Cited by 14 publications

References 51 publications

Numerical Simulation on Thermoelectric Cooling of Core Power Devices in Air Conditioning

Numerical Simulation on Thermoelectric Cooling of Core Power Devices in Air Conditioning

Advances in flexible inorganic thermoelectrics

High-Performance Wearable Bi2Te3-Based Thermoelectric Generator

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