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Improvement in Flow Distribution for Effective Thermal Management in Thermoelectric Generator for Waste Heat Recovery

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Advances in Engineering Materials (FLAME 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

Abstract

In an automobile, only one-third of the total fuel energy is used for propulsion, and the remaining two-third is lost to engine coolant and the exhaust as waste. Thermoelectric generators (TEG) demonstrate huge potential in automotive applications by recovering the exhaust waste heat and converting it into direct electric power. TEG helps escalate the engine’s fuel efficiency. However, extracting waste heat from automobile exhaust using TEG manifests practical difficulties attributed to thermoelectric materials, design, and operating conditions. Ineffective configurations and heat exchanger designs lead to non-uniform flow and temperature distribution on the hot and cold sides of TEG, causing undesirable power output, which lowers the entire system’s efficiency. In this study, the flow distribution of exhaust gas through the automotive TEG with pin fin heat exchanger is simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Improvement in the flow pattern using passive flow distributors such as guide vanes at different angles is analyzed to attain the temperature uniformity through the hot heat exchanger surface. A detailed analysis of flow distribution and its influence on the local and average temperature distribution is presented. Results provide critical design recommendations to improve the flow distribution in an automotive TEG for exhaust waste energy recovery.

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Abbreviations

h :

Specific enthalpy (J/kg K)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W/m K)

k′:

Turbulent kinetic energy (J/kg)

p :

Pressure (Pa)

u, v, w:

Velocities (m/s) in x, y, and z directions respectively

V :

Velocity vector (m/s)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

θ :

Temperature (K)

ω ′ :

Specific rate of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy (1/s)

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (Pa s)

x, y, z:

Directions corresponding to Cartesian coordinates

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Acknowledgements

Present work is carried out in collaboration with Defense Research Laboratory, Jodhpur under the research project (Project Number-S/DRDO/SHS/20210056).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 342037, India

    Chander Veer & Shobhana Singh

  2. Defense Laboratory Jodhpur, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 342011, India

    Jasa Ram

Authors
  1. Chander Veer
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  2. Shobhana Singh
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  3. Jasa Ram
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shobhana Singh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amity School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    R. K. Tyagi

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amity School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Pallav Gupta

  3. Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Prosenjit Das

  4. School of Materials Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology BHU, Varanasi, India

    Rajiv Prakash

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Veer, C., Singh, S., Ram, J. (2024). Improvement in Flow Distribution for Effective Thermal Management in Thermoelectric Generator for Waste Heat Recovery. In: Tyagi, R.K., Gupta, P., Das, P., Prakash, R. (eds) Advances in Engineering Materials. FLAME 2022. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4758-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4758-4_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-4757-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-4758-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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