Wu, C.-I.; Du, K.-W.; Tu, Y.-H. Enhanced Energy Harvesting from Thermoelectric Modules: Strategic Manipulation of Element Quantity and Geometry for Optimized Power Output. Energies2024, 17, 5453.
Wu, C.-I.; Du, K.-W.; Tu, Y.-H. Enhanced Energy Harvesting from Thermoelectric Modules: Strategic Manipulation of Element Quantity and Geometry for Optimized Power Output. Energies 2024, 17, 5453.
Wu, C.-I.; Du, K.-W.; Tu, Y.-H. Enhanced Energy Harvesting from Thermoelectric Modules: Strategic Manipulation of Element Quantity and Geometry for Optimized Power Output. Energies2024, 17, 5453.
Wu, C.-I.; Du, K.-W.; Tu, Y.-H. Enhanced Energy Harvesting from Thermoelectric Modules: Strategic Manipulation of Element Quantity and Geometry for Optimized Power Output. Energies 2024, 17, 5453.
Abstract
With the rising awareness of environmental issues, concerns about pollution and global warming have gained importance, and electricity generation costs continue to increase. As a result, research on energy recovery using thermoelectric modules has attracted attention in recent years. Given the lack of significant breakthroughs in thermoelectric materials, improving the structure of thermoelectric modules has become a key direction for enhancing efficiency. Common thermoelectric module types include flat plate (Flat Plate TEG), annular (Annular TEG), flexible (Flexibility TEG), segmented, and cascaded designs. Factors influencing thermoelectric performance include the number, shape, height, contact area of thermoelectric elements, temperature difference, copper plate length, contact resistance, and the geometric arrangement of the elements.
This study is based on the commercially available TGM1-127-1.0-0.8 thermoelectric module. By simulating the output performance of both flat plate and annular thermoelectric module structures under identical conditions—such as total volume of thermoelectric material, shape, and height of the thermoelectric legs, the total contact area with the heat source, temperature differential, and total volume of the connecting copper plate—we observed that the number of thermoelectric elements not only determines the open-circuit voltage but also influences the output power. The trend of output power remains consistent under varying temperature differences, regardless of changes in the load resistance.
Keywords
Thermoelectric generators; Annular thermoelectric generators; Waste heat recovery; Energy harvesting; Module design and optimization; Energy conversion efficiency; Thermocouple optimization
Subject
Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
