Abstract
Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are solid state heat engines that generate electricity from a temperature gradient. Optimizing these devices for maximum power production can be difficult due to the many heat transport mechanisms occurring simultaneously within the TEG. In this paper, we develop a model for heat transport in thermoelectric materials in which an "effective thermal conductivity" (κ eff) encompasses both the one dimensional steady-state Fourier conduction and the heat generation/consumption due to secondary thermoelectric effects. This model is especially powerful in that the value of κ eff does not depend upon the operating conditions of the TEG but rather on the transport properties of the TE materials themselves. We analyze a variety of thermoelectric materials and generator designs using this concept and demonstrate that κ eff predicts the heat fluxes within these devices to 5% of the exact value.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 204904 |
| Journal | Journal of Applied Physics |
| Volume | 113 |
| Issue number | 20 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 28 2013 |
Funding
L.L.B. was supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) Program. G.J.S. gratefully acknowledges the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and AFOSR MURI FA9550-10-1-0533 for support. E.S.T. acknowledges the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at CSM (NSF-MRSEC award DMR0820518) for funding. The information, data, or work presented herein was funded in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy, under Award No. DE-AR0000287.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy