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Performance Analysis on Solar Concentrating Thermoelectric Generator Coupled with Heat Sink

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Abstract

The usage of thermoelectric generators (TEGs) is rapidly increasing where the waste heat exists. Today, many experiments are being conducted to investigate solar energy systems with waste heat. This work focuses on the performance of an individual TEG via a spot Fresnel lens. Therefore, an experimental system was constructed so that the TEG module could show high performance under the concentrated solar radiation. For this aim, the system was adapted to one-axis sun tracking system for receiving maximum solar irradiation. It was observed that the obtained experimental values of the parameters such as open circuit voltage, hot side temperature and cold side temperature of the TEG module are consistent with the collected solar values. The experimental data was collected at GPS coordinates of 41°14′N and 36°26′E (Samsun, Turkey) on 8th of September, 2017. The maximum open circuit voltage value was obtained as 0.822 V.

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Abbreviations

Th :

Thermoelectric hot side temperature (°C)

Tc :

Thermoelectric cold side temperature (°C)

Rint :

Internal resistance of the TE module (Ω)

If :

Solar flux irradiance (W/m2) for Fresnel lens

Voc :

Open circuit voltage (V)

αTEG :

Seebeck coefficient of the used TEG

Pmax :

Maximum output power (W)

ηe :

Electrical efficiency (%)

Qc :

Heat transfer to coolant water (W)

Qin :

Heating power (W)

mc :

Mass flow rate (g/s)

ηt :

Thermal efficiency (%)

Tout :

Outlet temperature of coolant (°C)

Tin :

Inlet temperature of coolant (°C)

ITEG :

Thermoelectric current source

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  1. Department of Electricity and Energy Technologies, Yeşilyurt Demir Çelik Vocational School, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey

    Yavuz Köysal

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Köysal, Y. Performance Analysis on Solar Concentrating Thermoelectric Generator Coupled with Heat Sink. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 20, 313–318 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-019-00060-w

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