A computational approach thermoelectric power generators to estimate heat flux

Avijit Nayak; R. K. Nayak

doi:10.15282/jmes.13.1.2019.26.0396

Authors

Avijit Nayak Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gandhi Institute of Technology & Management, 752054 Saraswati Vihar, Gangapada Bhubaneswar, Odisha,India.
R. K. Nayak Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Patia, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15282/jmes.13.1.2019.26.0396

Keywords:

Angle of attack, Finned heat sink, Solar flux, Thermoelectric generator (TEG), Wind direction, Wind tunnel

Abstract

This paper focuses on establishing the limiting value of input heat flux for thermoelectric generators (TEG) under different environmental and operating conditions. The current study investigates the limiting input heat flux for TEG’s with allowable hot side temperature of 150.A fin block with 8 fin configuration and fin length of 60 mm is chosen as heat sink configuration for TEG. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is developed and analyzed in this work after validation with published experimental results. CFD model consists of 4 TEGs encapsulated within a target block and a finned block, placed within a low speed wind tunnel. Forced laminar air flow in the wind tunnel up to 14 m/s simulates the outdoor wind conditions. Concentrated solar flux is applied to the face of the target block. Effect of ambient air temperature, fin material is studied. Angle of Attack (AOA) and wind direction which arises due to the 2 axis tacking of sun by Fresnel lens concentrator has also been studied and it is observed that maximum heat flux reaches 24,850 W/m²for the TEG at 14 m/s wind speed, 24,000 W/m² for 30Angle of Attack (AOA) under 5 m/s wind velocity. It is also observed that maximum heat flux varies by 147.77% with a change in wind velocity from 0 to 5 m/s, while the change is 11.43% when the change from 5 to 14 m/s.

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