Numerical research on enhanced thermoelectric conversion system

The exhaust gas from vehicle engine is a pulsatile current with high speed, high temperature, and high frequency. The thermal calculated parameters of the high-power thermoelectric generator include the convective heat transfer coefficient α, the temperature drop along ΔT, especially the heat transfer area A and the pressure drop Δp. In this paper, we investigated the thermal characteristics of an intramural enhanced generator i.e. thermoelectric component directly mounted in the heater´s channel of generator, whose component was designed as a cross shape, where the convective heat transfer took place between the thermocouples and the exhaust gas current directly, also, it took place between the cold crunodes and the flowed cooling water in cooler. Then, the numerical model was established and calculations were done; further more, their characteristics are compared with those of a plain tube (an exhaust pipe without thermoelectric component inside). The numerical calculated results show that the intramural thermoelectric generator effectively improves the area A and coefficient α, it provides a base for lager scale integration of thermocouples.