Influence and comprehensive evaluation of porous metal foam filled fins on the performance of power cable surface waste heat recovery thermoelectric power generation device

Cables are essential components in power systems. Certain amount of heat is generated during the energy transfer process. Effective recovery and utilization of waste heat generated by cables is a helpful proposition. In this study, a cable waste heat recovery thermoelectric generation device (CTEG) is proposed. By installing cooling fins and thermoelectric generation devices on the cable surface, the waste heat on the cable surface is converted into electric energy. To improve the power generation efficiency of the device, a method of filling porous metal foam material in the fin teeth gap is used. The results demonstrate that filling the fin teeth gap with porous metal foam material with high porosity and low pore density (PPI) can significantly increase heat transfer efficiency and benefit the output power of the thermoelectric generation device. The flow field in the pipeline of thermoelectric generation device is also analyzed in this study. A comprehensive evaluation method is proposed to consider the power generation efficiency and heat transfer efficiency of the thermoelectric generation device. It is shown that filling porous metal foam material with high porosity and low pore density can maximize the power generation efficiency of the thermoelectric generation device, and at the same time, the pipe pressure drop loss can be compensated by the improvement of heat transfer. This research is significant because it provides useful information for enhancing the energy conversion efficiency of thermoelectric generation devices that recover waste heat from cable surfaces and generate electrical power.