Volume 16: Low Carbon Cities and Urban Energy Systems: Part V

Impact of Series Circuit Layout on the Output Power Performance of Thermoelectric Generator Wei He, Zihan Cai, Chenchen Pei, Xinqiao Wang, Hailong Li, Jian Liu

Abstract

To explore the influence of circuit layout on the performance of a thermoelectric generator (TEG), this study utilizes Fortran software to establish the engine exhaust of the thermoelectric generation model, and analyze the temperature distribution of the hot and cold ends of the thermoelectric unit, electromotive force, current, and output power distribution along the flow direction, under different circuit layouts. In addition, the power output performance of different circuit layouts, including the full-series-type and multi-stage-series types, are compared. The results indicate that the multi-stage series circuit layout can achieve a higher output power, and the higher the stage number, the higher the power output; however, the increased range becomes significantly smaller. Considering the complexity and connection of the circuit control, the recommended segment number of the multistage series type is three.

Keywords Circuit layout, Full series type, Multi-stage series type, Thermoelectric generation, Output power