MODELLING AND DESIGN OF THERMOELECTRIC GENERATOR FOR WASTE HEAT RECOVERY

In order to design an effective thermoelectric generator (TEG) heat exchanger for waste heat recovery, an accurate model is required for system design and performance predicting. In this paper, 1-D model is developed in MATLAB, taking into consideration of the multi-physics phenomena within TEG. The proposed model is different from existing thermoelectric models which mainly focus on the thermoelectric couple or device level without providing any guidance for designing an optimal system. When optimizing some TEG parameters, the optimal value found in a device level model might not be suitable when put into a waste heat recovery system. Therefore, in order to develop an optimized TEG system with optimum output power performance, a more comprehensive thermoelectric model integrated with the other components is needed. The current model integrates the thermoelectric module with the heat exchangers. Through this study, we found that the heat exchanger and module design have an impact on the total TEG output power in waste heat recovery system and a systematic design approach is needed.