Open Access
Development and experimental validation of a thermoelectric test bench for laboratory lessons
(OmniaScience, 2013) Rodríguez García, Antonio; Astrain Ulibarrena, David; Martínez Echeverri, Álvaro; Aranguren Garacochea, Patricia; Pérez Artieda, Miren Gurutze; Ingeniería Mecánica, Energética y de Materiales; Mekanika, Energetika eta Materialen Ingeniaritza
The refrigeration process reduces the temperature of a space or a given volume while the power generation process employs a source of thermal energy to generate electrical power. Because of the importance of these two processes, training of engineers in this area is of great interest. In engineering courses it is normally studied the vapor compression and absorption refrigeration, and power generation systems such as gas turbine and steam turbine. Another type of cooling and generation less studied within the engineering curriculum, having a great interest, it is cooling and thermal generation based on Peltier and Seebeck effects. The theoretical concepts are useful, but students have difculties understanding the physical meaning of their possible applications. Providing students with tools to test and apply the theory in real applications, will lead to a better understanding of the subject. Engineers must have strong theoretical, computational and also experimental skills. A prototype test bench has been built and experimentally validated to perform practical lessons of thermoelectric generation and refrigeration. Using this prototype students learn the most effective way of cooling systems and thermal power generation as well as basic concepts associated with thermoelectricity. It has been proven that students learn the process of data acquisition, and the technology used in thermoelectric devices. These practical lessons are implemented for a 60 people group of students in the development of subject of Thermodynamic including in the Degree in Engineering in Industrial Technologies of Public University of Navarra.
Open Access
Women, Science and Technology Chair—Promoting women’s careers in stem fields
(IEEE, 2023) Pérez Artieda, Miren Gurutze; Gómez Fernández, Marisol; Aranguren Garacochea, Patricia; Barrenechea Tartas, Edurne; Catalán Ros, Leyre; Díaz Lucas, Silvia; Jurío Munárriz, Aránzazu; Martínez Ramírez, Alicia; Millor Muruzábal, Nora; Ortiz Nicolás, Amalia; San Martín Biurrun, Idoia; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Ingeniería; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Ingeniaritza; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
The Chair of Women, Science and Technology of the Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA) aims to increase the participation of women in the fields of science and technology. Scientific culture and dissemination are the main focus of the different actions of the Chair. These activities include: the theatrical performance "Yo quiero ser científica", experimental workshops and conferences and exhibitions for all audiences and ages. More than 6.000 people have seen the play, more than 1.500 secondary school students have participated in the workshops and the audiovisual material has received more than 20.000 visits.
Open Access
Initiative to increment the number of women in STEM degrees: women, science and technology chair of the Public University of Navarre
(IEEE, 2020) Aranguren Garacochea, Patricia; San Martín Biurrun, Idoia; Catalán Ros, Leyre; Martínez Ramírez, Alicia; Jurío Munárriz, Aránzazu; Díaz Lucas, Silvia; Pérez Artieda, Miren Gurutze; Gómez Fernández, Marisol; Barrenechea Tartas, Edurne; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Ingeniería; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Ingeniaritza; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
The Public University of Navarre joined with Navarre Government has created the Women, Science and Technology Chair. This chair arises due to the plummeting tendency of the percentage of women in STEM degrees with the aim of reversing this trend. The programme of activities is defined throughout this contribution by six activities: a Theatre Play, a Poster Award on Final Degree/Masters Project, The 1st Week of Women, Science and Technology, the Promotion of Technical Degrees in schools and high-schools, a Workshop about Gender Stereotypes and the Fostering of Women among Science and Environment. Each activity gained great success and the preset goals were highly accomplished, especially, the 1st Week of Women, Science and Technology activity. The latter achieved a great success both in participation and in repercussion, contributing to visualize the role of women in science and technology.
Open Access
New opportunities for electricity generation in shallow hot dry rock fields: a study of thermoelectric generators with different heat exchangers
(Elsevier, 2019) Catalán Ros, Leyre; Aranguren Garacochea, Patricia; Araiz Vega, Miguel; Pérez Artieda, Miren Gurutze; Astrain Ulibarrena, David; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
Despite being one of the largest renewable sources, geothermal energy is not widely utilized for electricity generation. In order to leverage shallow hot dry rock (HDR) fields, the present paper proposes an alternative to enhanced geothermal systems (EGS): thermoelectric generators. Based on the conditions of Timanfaya National Park, a prototype has been built to experimentally analyze the feasibility of the proposed solution. The prototype is composed by a two phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT) as hot side heat exchanger, two thermoelectric modules, and it considers different cold side heat exchangers: fin dissipators assisted by a fan and loop thermosyphons, both with various geometries. Experiments have demonstrated that loop thermosyphons represent the best alternative due to their low thermal resistance and, especially, due to their lack of auxiliary consumption, leading to a maximum net power generation of 3.29 W per module with a temperature difference of 180 °C (200 °C in the hot side and 20 °C as ambient temperature), 54% more than with fin dissipators. Hence, there exists a new opportunity for electricity generation in shallow hot dry rock fields: thermoelectric generators with biphasic thermosyphons as heat exchangers, a patented and robust solution.
Open Access
Computational and experimental study of a complete heat dissipation system using water as heat carrier placed on a thermoelectric generator
(Elsevier, 2014) Aranguren Garacochea, Patricia; Astrain Ulibarrena, David; Pérez Artieda, Miren Gurutze; Ingeniería Mecánica, Energética y de Materiales; Mekanika, Energetika eta Materialen Ingeniaritza
The heat dissipation systems which have liquids as heat carriers outperform conventional dissipation systems at thermoelectric generators (TEGs). However, new elements need to be introduced such as pumps, secondary heat exchangers and piping. A predictive computational model of a dissipation system involving refrigerant liquids has been implemented. The accuracy of the model is 93 % for all its outputs: the total thermal resistance, the hydraulic losses and the auxiliary power consumption. The validation of the model has been done with a prototype mainly composed by a multi-channel heat exchanger, a fan-coil, a pump and several sensors: temperature, pressure and flow meters. A study on the influence of the water and the air mass flow over the total thermal resistance has been conducted. The total resistance dependence on the air mass flow shows the importance of including the secondary heat exchanger into the thermal and hydraulic calculations. The smallest resistance does not always obtain the highest net power generation, the high demanding power of the auxiliary equipment needed to obtain this resistance influences negatively on the net power generation. Among the experimental points, the optimum scenario obtains a 40 % additional power generation with respect to the smallest resistance point.