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The thermoelectric generator (TEG) is a distinctive solid-state heat engine with great potential in various scale energy harvesting. Device-level heat transfer coupled with energy conversion makes the accurate analysis of the system very complicate. In this paper, the thermodynamic analysis in a TEG module is carried out to study the influence of the contact layer resistance, Thompson Effect, Joule heat, and thermo-pellet gap heat leakage on the performance of the TEG. All expressions of power output, current, matching load resistant factor, and efficiency of the device are derived and compared with a commercial module. The equations for the simplified model are also given concisely in order to give a full picture of TEG modeling. The research can evaluate the combined influence of all the factors and redress some derivations in the existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thermoelectric energy harvester composed of two thermoelectric modules, a wicked copper-water heat pipe, and finned heat sinks has been designed, modeled, and tested. The harvester is proposed to power sensor nodes on heating/cooling, steam, or exhaust pipes like these in power stations, chemical plants and vehicle systems. A model to analyze the heat transfer and thermoelectric performance of the energy harvesting system has been developed and validated against experiments. The results show that the model predicts the system power output and temperature response with reasonable accuracy. The model developed in this paper can be adapted for use with general heat sink, heat pipe, and thermoelectric systems. The design, incorporating a heat pipe and two 1.1″ by 1.1″ Bi 2 Te 3 modules generates 2.25 W ± 0.13 W power output with a temperature difference of 128 °C ± 1.12 °C and source temperature of 246 °C ± 1.9 °C, which is more than enough to operate wireless sensors or some actuators. The use of a heat pipe in this design increased the power output by 6 times over conventional designs. Based on the model, further improvement of the power output and energy harvesting efficiency of the system has been suggested by optimizing the number of thermoelectric modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]