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Thermoelectric generator is a device taking advantage of the temperature difference in thermoelectric material to generate electric power, where the higher the temperature difference of the hot-cold ends, the higher the efficiency will be. However, higher temperature or higher heat flux upon the hot end will cause strong thermal stress which will negatively influence the lifecycle of the thermoelectric module. This phenomenon is very common in industrial applications but seldom has research work been reported. In this paper, numerical analysis on the thermodynamics and thermal stress performance of the thermoelectric module has been performed, considering the variation on the thickness of materials; the influence of high heat flux on thermal efficiency, power output, and thermal stress has been examined. It is found that under high heat flux imposing upon the hot end, the thermal stress is so strong that it has a decisive effect on the life expectation of the device. To improve the module’s working condition, different geometrical configurations are tested and the optimum sizes are achieved. Besides, the side effects on the efficiency, power output, and open circuit voltage output of the thermoelectric module are taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is not only a solar thermal application system to achieve output power, but also a device extracting freshwater from the humid air. In this article, we proposed a SCPP with collector being replaced by black tubes around the chimney to warm water and air. The overall performance of SCPP was analyzed by using a one-dimensional compressible fluid transfer model to calculate the system characteristic parameters, such as chimney inlet air velocity, the condensation level, amount of condensed water, output power, and efficiency. It was found that increasing the chimney inlet air temperature is an efficient way to increase chimney inlet air velocity and wind turbine output power. The operating conditions, such as air temperature and air relative humidity, have significant influence on the condensation level. For water generation, chimney height is the most decisive factor, the mass flow rate of condensed water decreases with increasing wind turbine pressure drop. To achieve the optimum peak output power by wind turbine, we should set the pressure drop factor as about 0.7. In addition, increasing chimney height is also an efficient way to improve the SCPP efficiency. Under ideal conditions, the system total efficiency of a SCPP with a height of 3000 m can be up to nearly 7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]