Optimal design of thermoelectric devices

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:6072887

Huang, Chen

The objective of this dissertation research is to gain quantitative understanding for better design of the thermoelectric (TE) devices which consist of TE elements. Basically such quantitative understanding encompasses overall performance i.e. temperature distribution in the element, heat transfer both in the element and on the side surface, power generation and/or heat exchange at the element junctions, thermal efficiency and/or coefficient of performance (COP) under different conditions of geometry shape, electric current, temperature difference between hot and cold junctions, insulation on the side surface and material properties for both TE heat pumps (refrigerators) and power generators. The study is concentrated on the individual leg of TE element. The calculus of variations and Pontryagin's minimum principle are applied to find the optimal solution for simple cases with uniform cross sectional area. The optimal solutions of complicated cases which have temperature-dependent properties and non-uniform cross sectional area are given by applying the Pattern Search algorithm to locate the maximum of the performance indexes. The results show that the performance of the devices is significantly raised by the optimization.

• Research Organization: North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6072887
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300301* -- Thermoelectric Generators-- Design & Development
ALGORITHMS
DESIGN
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY TRANSFER
HEAT TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
OPTIMIZATION
PERFORMANCE
POWER GENERATION
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
THERMAL EFFICIENCY
THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS