Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Thermoelectric Generator

Abstract

As demand for energy is increasing, there is need of harvesting energy from waste energy. Thermal energy is low grade energy, heat engines can convert only about 35% of available energy the rest is waste heat. This waste heat can be converted into useful energy by thermoelectric generator. A thermoelectric device consist of a P-Type and N-type semiconductor connected electrically in series and thermally in parallel and it works on Seebeck principle. Thermoelectric generator directly converts thermal energy to electrical energy without any moving parts, they are light weight potentially they are less prone to failure because no moving parts are involved. Presently the use of thermoelectric devices is limited because of low efficiencies they work on about 10% of Carnot efficiency. Efficiency of a thermoelctric generator can by improving ZT value of materials and design of thermoelectric generator. The present work develops zero dimensional analytical models & analyzed. Later a 3D model of the same was numerically simulated using ANSYS workbench. Insights of numerical model are discussed such as variation of power with variation load, length of leg