Research on the Affection of Thermoelectric Module Performance Related to Thermal Deformation in the Automotive Exhaust-Based Thermoelectric Generator

Abstract

When the automotive exhaust-based thermoelectric generator (TEG) is under the on-board environment, the thermal deformation of hot and cold ends of thermoelectric module (TEM) influences the contact surfaces. Therefore the heat conduction of the two ends is changed to influence the efficiency of TEM. With ANSYS, thermal deformation of TEM is analyzed under on-board environment. Comparison experiments are conducted to obtain TEM power and pressure variation curve with TEM which is covered at hot and cold ends by proteiform and heat-resisting graphite paper materials with high heat conductivity and TEM which is not covered by that materials. These experiments lay a foundation for further exploring the rule of influence of thermal deformation on TEM efficiency and improving the automotive exhaust-based thermoelectric generator.