Enhanced behaviour of a passive thermoelectric generator with phase change heat exchangers and radiative cooling
Fecha
2023Autor
Versión
Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia
Tipo
Artículo / Artikulua
Versión
Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa
Identificador del proyecto
Impacto
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10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2023.120162
Resumen
Heat exchangers are essential to optimize the efficiency of Thermoelectric Generators (TEGs), and heat pipes without fans have proven to be an advantageous design as it maintains the characteristic robustness of thermoelectricity, low maintenance and lack of moving parts. However, the efficiency of these heat exchangers decreases under natural convection conditions, reducing their heat transfer c ...
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Heat exchangers are essential to optimize the efficiency of Thermoelectric Generators (TEGs), and heat pipes without fans have proven to be an advantageous design as it maintains the characteristic robustness of thermoelectricity, low maintenance and lack of moving parts. However, the efficiency of these heat exchangers decreases under natural convection conditions, reducing their heat transfer capacity and thus thermoelectric power production. This work reports on a novel heat exchanger that combines for the first time, phase change and radiative cooling in a thermoelectric generator to improve its efficiency and increase the production of electrical energy, specially under natural convection. For this, two thermoelectric generators with heat-pipes on their cold sides have been tested: one with the radiative coating and the other without it. Their thermal resistances have been determined and the electric power output was compared under different working conditions, namely, natural convection and forced convection indoors and outdoors. The experimental tests show a clear reduction of the heat exchanger thermal resistance thanks to the radiative coating and consequently, an increase of electric production 8.3 % with outdoor wind velocities of 1 m/s, and up to 54.8 % under free convection conditions. The application of the radiative surface treatment is shown to result in a more stable electrical energy production, suppressing the drastic decrease in the generated electric power that occurs in thermoelectric generators when they work under free convection. [--]
Materias
Radiative cooling,
Heat-pipe,
Thermoelectric generator,
Thermal resistance
Editor
Elsevier
Publicado en
Applied Thermal Engineering 225 (2023) 120162
Departamento
Universidad Pública de Navarra. Departamento de Ingeniería /
Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Ingeniaritza Saila /
Universidad Pública de Navarra/Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
Versión del editor
Entidades Financiadoras
The authors acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and the European Regional Development Fund , under grants PID2021-124014OB-I00 (VIVOTEG), TED2021-129359B-I00 (GEOTEG), PGC2018-101743-B-I00 (SIP) and RTI2018-093921-A-C44 (SMOOTH). Open access funding provided by Universidad Pública de Navarra.