When power factor supersedes zT to determine power in a thermocouple

Duncan Zavanelli; Alexander Pröschel; Joshua Winograd; Radion Cherkez; G. Jeffrey Snyder

doi:10.1063/5.0076742

When power factor supersedes zT to determine power in a thermocouple

Duncan Zavanelli, Alexander Pröschel, Joshua Winograd, Radion Cherkez, G. Jeffrey Snyder^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The primary material parameter determining power in a thermoelectric is the figure of merit zT. This figure of merit comes from the requirement for thermal impedance matching between the thermoelectric legs and heat exchangers in an optimally designed thermoelectric module. However, in a thermocouple temperature sensor, the geometry is constrained for temperature sensing. If the geometry is constrained so that the length of the thermoelectric elements is greater than a characteristic length, then the material thermal conductivity becomes less relevant. This makes the power factor the determining material metric for power output in such a device designed for temperature sensing.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	115101
Journal	Journal of Applied Physics
Volume	131
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0076742
State	Published - Mar 21 2022

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy(all)

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abstract = "The primary material parameter determining power in a thermoelectric is the figure of merit zT. This figure of merit comes from the requirement for thermal impedance matching between the thermoelectric legs and heat exchangers in an optimally designed thermoelectric module. However, in a thermocouple temperature sensor, the geometry is constrained for temperature sensing. If the geometry is constrained so that the length of the thermoelectric elements is greater than a characteristic length, then the material thermal conductivity becomes less relevant. This makes the power factor the determining material metric for power output in such a device designed for temperature sensing. ",

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When power factor supersedes zT to determine power in a thermocouple

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