Simulation on Performance of Thermoelectric Generator Applied in Waste Heat Recovery

Thermoelectric generator technology,due to its several kinds of advantages,especially its promising applications to recover waste heat,has become a noticeable researcher direction.Thermoelectric technology involves three basic effects,which lead to the temperature distribution being difficult to solve.In order to explore operation law which makes thermoelectric generator have a bigger output power,a mathematical model based on thermoelectric principle and heat transfer theory has been built and was used to solve the temperature distribution of thermoelectric generator.The performance characteristics of thermoelectric generator in different operation conditions have been gained in the objective function of output power by simulating.By the comparison,it is found that reinforcing the heat transfer capability is an effective approach and the water is superior to the air for the cooling effect.The results can provide meaningful guidelines for optimizing operation conditions and improving output power of thermoelectric generator.