A mathematical model for online electrical characterization of thermoelectric generators using the P-I curves at different temperatures

This paper presents a proposed mathematical model to describe the electrical characteristics for a thermoelectric generator. The TEG model considers the use of second order polynomial equations, the boundary conditions, and characteristic shape for the operation of a TEG. The proposed TEG model has the following advantages: 1) suitable for sustainable energy and power applications, 2) emulate the typical shape for the electrical characteristics for a TEG, 3) useful for circuit analysis at the academic level, 4) able to replicate the realistic constraints in a TEG. Finally, the paper shows simulations to validate the proposed TEG mathematical model.