23rd International Symposium on Transport Phenomena

Auckland, New Zealand

1922 November 2012

The Thermo -Electrical Characteristics for a Thermoelectric Generator Module

with Plate-Fin Heat Sink used in Waste Heat Recovery System

J.Y. Jang, Y.C. Huang and J.H. Jian

Department of Mechanical Engineering
National Cheng -Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan

Abstract dynamic viscosity

When the thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are used to recover
waste heat from a larger chimney plate, the TEG hot side
temperature and thus the electric power output can be increased
through inserting plate-fin heat sink into the chimney tunnel to
increase the convective heat transfer area. In the present study,
the thermoelectric module consists of a plate-fin heat sink, a
thermoelectric generator and a cold plate based on water cooling.
On a whole, the main purpose of this article is to analyze the
effects of the geometrical parameters on both the electric power
output and the chimney pressure drop characteristics. The
geometrical parameters include the fin height (Lf), and the total
number of fin (N), respectively. In addition, the effects of
different operating conditions include waste gas heat transfer
coefficients ( hh = 540 W/m2-K ) and different temperature
differences between the waste-gas and the cooling water ( T =
200400 K ) for TEG modules and different inlet velocities for
the chimney waste gas are also discussed in detail.
Nomenclature
Afin fin surface area
ATEG TEG surface area
l laminar viscosity
t turbulent viscosity
gas density
Prandtl number for turbulent kinetic energy
Prandtl number for turbulent energy dissipation
Introduction
Thermoelectric effects include Seebeck effect, Peltier effect and
Thomson effect, and it also accompanies with other effects, such
as Joule heating and Fourier heat conduction law. Seebeck effects
in semiconductor materials induce electromotive force due to
temperature gradients, and Peltier effects induce temperature
gradients when a DC electrical current is applied. Accordingly,
thermoelectric devices could be basically categorized into two
operational modes, which are thermoelectric generators and
thermoelectric coolers (TECs), depending on the direction of
energy conversion. As miniature generating devices, the
thermoelectric generator (TEG) has the advantages of compact
structure, high reliability, no vibration and direct electric energy
conversion. In general, a thermoelectric generator consists of a
number of semiconductor pairs that are connected electrically in

E electric field a series and thermally in parallel, and each pair includes a p-type
hc cooling water heat transfer coefficient and an n-type element. Although in theory, a single piece of
hh waste gas heat transfer coefficient semiconductor material could work, a series connection is used to
I electric current meet the high voltage potential requirement. P-type and n-type
J current density elements are alternated to assure that the carriers transport in the
kP/N equivalent thermal conductivity of TEG same direction.
Lf fin height Thermoelectric generators present potential applications in the
N number of fin conversion of low level thermal energy into electrical power.
P electric power output Especially in the case of waste heat recovery, it is not necessary
P pressure to consider the cost of the thermal energy input, and there are
Pideal electric power output before counting pumping power additional advantages, such as energy saving and emission
Pmax maximum electric power output reduction, so the low efficiency problem is no longer the most
Pnet net electric power important issue that we have to take into account [8]. In the
Pr turbulent kinetic energy production rate application of TEGs for waste heat recovery power generation,
Qin heat transfer rate of fin surface there have been many conceptual designs for a power conversion
Qout heat transfer rate of TEG surface system that could be potentially capable of being applied in this
T temperature area. Suzuki and Tanaka [9] provided the output powers of their
Tgas Temperature of waste gas proposed 15 systems analytically deduced from heat transfer
Twater Temperature of water theory and written in non-dimensional form to reflect the
V electric potential characteristics of system design. The maximum output was the
Vin waste gas inlet velocity largest in the ideal isothermal systems. Crane and Jackson [2]
ui velocity component studied numerical heat exchanger models integrated with models
P/N equivalent Seebeck coefficient of TEG for Bi2Te3 thermoelectric modules which were validated against
P chimney tunnel pressure drop experimental data from previous cross-flow heat exchanger
temperature difference between the waste-gas and the studies as well as experiments using thermoelectric modules
T
cooling water between counter-flow hot water and cooling air flow channels.
turbulent energy dissipation ratio Niu et al. [7] constructed an experimental TEG unit, which was
P/N equivalent electrical resistivity of TEG used to examine the influences of the main operating conditions,
turbulent kinetic energy the hot and cold fluid inlet temperatures, flow rates and the load
resistance on the power output and conversion efficiency. Hsiao field (T) and electrical potential (V) for the p-type and n-type
at al. [4] constructed a mathematic model to predict the element can be expressed as
performance of a TEG module attached to a waste heat recovery
system. The results showed that the TEG module presented better 2T 2T 2T
performance on an exhaust pipe as opposed to a radiator. Dai et k P / N 2 2 2 P / N J 2 0 (1)
al. [3] provided a new type of TEG system based on liquid metal x y z
which served to harvest and transport waste heat. The V V V
experimental results for the TEG system were discussed and a E i j k
calculated efficiency of 2% in the whole TEG system was x y z
obtained. Karri et al. [5] studied the power and fuel savings (3)
T T T
produced by TEGs placed in the exhaust stream of a sports utility P / N i j k P / N J
vehicle (SUV). The optimized quantum-well (QW) based TEG x y z
stack generated about 5.35.8 kW, resulting in a fuel savings of
about 3%. 2V 2V 2V 2T 2T 2T
2 2 P / N 2 2 2 (4)
Since the tunnel of the chimney is a bare tube, for a given gas x 2
y z x y z
flow rate the hot side temperature of TEG and thus the electric
power output can be increased through inserting plate-fin heat where kP/N, P/N and P/N represent the equivalent thermal
sink into the chimney which could raise convective heat transfer conductivity, electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient of
area and reduce thermal resistance from the waste gas to the TEG TEG module with 49 pairs of p-type and n-type semiconductors,

module. Lee [6] developed an analytical simulation model for respectively. The E and J denote the electrical field and
predicting the thermal and pressure characteristics of fin heat current density, respectively.
sinks in a partially confined configuration. Barrett and Obinelo [1]
studied the straight-channel longitudinal fin heat sinks under
forced air cooling. The parameters included the tip clearance and
spanwise spacing across a range of approach flow rates and fin
densities are used to examine the influence of flow bypass
phenomena on the thermal resistance and pressure drop across
the heat sinks.
Although other studies on TEG modules have been made, they
are mostly based on the theoretical analyses and experiments for
the TEG. Accordingly, the present work focuses on the geometry
of the plate-fin, especially investigating the influences of the fin
height (Lf) and the numbers of fin (N) on the power output and
the pressure increment, which is solved numerically using the
finite difference method. Eventually the TEG module net power
could be calculated from the above results in different operating
conditions.

Theoretical Model
The schematic diagram of the waste heat recovery system with
thermoelectric module is shown in Fig. 1. The thermoelectric
module shown in Fig. 1(a) consists of a plate-fin heat sink, a
TEG and a cold plate based on water cooling. A TEG is the
major component for converting heat energy into electric power,
in which 49 pairs of p-type and n-type semiconductor legs
composing the generator are connected thermally in parallel
between the hot exhaust gas and cold plate and electrically in a
series to power the load circuit. Since the thermoelectric models (a) TEG module
was used on the basis of an equivalent current method, which
means there is an equal electric current and an equal cross area of
thermoelectric elements, only one pair is considered here. And in
Fig. 1(b), there is the chimney with built-in plate-fin for
computing the pressure drop of the chimney tunnel.
Governing equations
For the solid plate-fin heat sink, ceramic substrate and conductive
copper, the three-dimensional heat energy balance equation under
steady state and constant conductivity with no heat generation is
expressed as

2T 2T 2T
0 (1)
x 2 y 2 z 2
(b) chimney tunnel with built-in plate-fin
Assuming constant thermal and electrical properties of the
thermoelectric material, the governing equations of the thermal Figure 1. Schematic of the thermoelectric module with a plate-fin
heat sink and the chimney with built-in fin.
For the waste gas flow in the chimney, the fluid is considered
incompressible with constant properties and no viscous
dissipation. The equations for mass and momentum (Reynold-
averaged Navier-Stokes equation) could be expressed as
ui
0 (5)
x
P With the help of the experimental data, the values of the physical
u j ui 2 ui u j ui (6) and thermoelectric parameters adopted in the FDM model were
x j xi x j
In the present study, the - turbulent model was introduced to
simulate the flow field more accurately. The - turbulent
equations are shown as below
x j
u j
x j
l t Pr
x j
x j
u j l t
x j
x j
c1Pr c2
Boundary Condition
Because the governing equations are elliptic in spatial
coordinates, the boundary conditions are required for all
boundaries of the computational domain. For the TEG module,
constant convection coefficients are specified at the cold side of
TEG and the surfaces of the plate-fin exposed to waste gas. All
remaining surfaces are set to be adiabatic conditions. For the gas
flow in the chimney, the inlet boundary is assumed to be uniform
velocity distribution, and the ambient pressure is set at the outlet
boundary. At the solid-fluid interface, no-slip condition is
specified. For turbulent calculation, the turbulence intensity at the
inlet is set to 3 %.
Numerical Methods
The foregoing governing equations and the boundary conditions
are solved numerically by a commercial computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) code using a control volume based on a finite
difference method (FDM). The finite difference approximations
are employed to discrete the transport equations onto a non-
staggered grid mesh system. Prior to computation, a thorough
verification of the grid-independence of the numerical solution is
performed in order to ensure the accuracy and validity of the
numerical results. For validating the independency of the solution
on the grid, each model with four different grid systems are
investigated, which include about 8,190, 11,712, 15,600 and
18,120 nodes for TEG module and 309,960, 376,200, 435,600
and 474,768 nodes for chimney waste gas with built-in fin,
respectively. It is found that the relative errors of the electric
power of the TEG module between the solutions of 15,600 and
18,120 is less than 0.2%, on the other, the relative errors of the
chimney pressure drop between the solutions of 435,600 and
474,768 is less than 0.5%. When the results satisfy the following
conditions, the solutions are treated as converged:
R anbnb b a p p 10 6 (9)
domain
i1 i
10 5 (10)
i
where R represents the residual sum, and is a general
dependent. The subscripts i and nb are the number of iterations
and the neighborhood grid points, respectively.
Experimental Setup
Numerical predictions of the module performance obtained from
the CFD code need to be verified with the experimental results.
calibrated. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the experimental setup is
mainly composed of three parts which are the wind tunnel system,
the water circulating system and the electrical network.
(7)
(8)
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.
The wind tunnel system consists of a blower, 12 annular heating
units assembled on a round stainless duct, a flow settling
chamber, the test section, and an exhaust pipe. The air flow was
driven by a 5HP centrifugal fan with a variable-frequency
converter to provide various inlet velocities to flow along the
wind tunnel and pass through the TEG module to simulate the
flow in the chimney. The air velocity in the test section was
measured by a hot wire with 2.0% accuracy. The heating section
of the experimental setup used 12 heaters which supply
maximum heat load about 35kW. In addition, the thermoelectric
module was built-in from the top surface of the test section.
Thermal grease was used to minimize the thermal contact
resistance between the TEG and the plate-fin, made of aluminium
(Al 6063) without additional surface treatment. Moreover, the air
temperatures at the inlet and the exit zones across the test section
were measured by two pre-calibrated RTDs (pt-100) with
accuracy within 0.05C. To reduce heat loss, all wind tunnel
system was surrounded by an insulator.
The TEG module was cooled by water which was pumped in a
closed circulating system that includes a flow meter and a
thermostat reservoir with a temperature controlled immersion
heater to maintain the water at 27C. The water volumetric flow
rate was measured by a magnetic volume flow meter with 0.002
L/s resolution. T-type thermal couples are embedded in inlet and
outlet of cooling water system to record temperature while
measuring.
In the electric network, a high power electrical resistor array was
connected in series to the TEG module which was used to capture
the matching load for the maximum power output. The ammeter
was connected in series to measure the current in the circuit and
the voltmeter was connected in parallel to measure the voltage
cross the external load resistor, respectively. A digital multi-
meter (Fluke 170) was used to measure the voltage with an
accuracy of 0.15% and the current with an accuracy of 1.0%. All
the data signals were collected and converted using a data
acquisition system (a hybrid recorder).
Results and Discussion
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 illustrate the temperature and electric potential
distributions of the thermoelectric module with and without the
built-in plate-fin, respectively, for the fin height Lf = 48mm, and
its number of fin N = 4, where the module were assumed to be
exposed to heat transfer with convective heat transfer coefficient
hh = 20W/m2-K for the fin surfaces and hc = 3000W/m2-K for the
cold side of TEG and with a temperature difference T = 300K.
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that a built-in fin can indeed increase
the module bulk temperature due to a larger heat transfer area
from the hot waste gas to the fin surfaces. Thus, the average
temperature difference between the hot and cold sides of the TEG
with a plate-fin is 91.3K, which is larger than that without a
plate-fin at 13.5K. This temperature difference results in an open
circuit voltage Voc = 2.07V (5.7 times increase) for a TEG
module with a plate-fin compared to Voc = 0.31V for the one
without a plate-fin, as seen in Fig. 4.
(a) module without fin
(b) module with fin
Figure 3. The temperature distributions of the thermoelectric
module with and without fin, respectively for N = 4, Lf = 48mm,
hh=20 W/m2-K and T = 300K.
(a) module without fin
(b) module with fin
Figure 4. The corresponding electric potential distributions of the
thermoelectric module with and without fin, respectively for N =
4, Lf = 48mm, hh=20 W/m2-K and T = 300K.
Fig. 5(a) and 5(b) show the voltage-current (V-I) and power-
current (P-I) curves, respectively, for the temperature difference
between the waste gas and the cooling water at 150K and hh =
20W/m2-K with Lf = 48mm and N = 4. The experimental results
are denoted by circle symbols. It can be seen that the predicted
numerical data for the V-I and P-I curves are in good agreement
(within 12%) with the experimental data. It can also be found that
the maximum power, Pmax, occurs when the external load
resistance is to equal the effective internal resistance of the TEG.
A closer look at Fig. 5(b) indicates that the Pmax with a fin can be
significantly increased up to 45times compared to those without a
fin.
(a) V-I curve
(b) P-I curve
Figure 5. V-I and P-I curves for numerical and experimental
results.
Fig. 6 presents the variations of Pmax with the plate-fin height (Lf)
for four values of waste gas heat transfer coefficients (hh = 5, 10,
20 and 40 W/m2-K) with temperature difference at 300K and fin
number N = 4. It is evident that the power output is significantly
increased as either the fin height (Lf) or the waste gas heat
transfer coefficient (hh) is increased which correspond to a larger
heat transfer area or a higher waste gas velocity. As fin height
increases from 0 to 72mm, Pmax improve about 163, 112, 65 and
32 times for heat transfer coefficient hh = 5, 10, 20 and 40 W/m2-
K, respectively.
As the plate-fin heat sink was inserted into the chimney tunnel,
though the waste gas tends to bypass from the clearance around
the fin and redistributes itself, it increases the total tunnel
pressure drop undoubtedly. Fig. 7 displays the variations of the
total tunnel pressure drop P with the plate-fin height for three
different values of inlet gas velocities (Vin = 1, 5 and 10m/s) with
the same fin number N = 4. It can be found that with the faster
inlet gas velocity it causes much pressure drop and the pressure
drop remains rising with longer fin height. The pressure drop
between fin height Lf = 72mm and Lf = 0mm are 0.0012, 0.015
and 0.061pa for inlet gas velocities at 1, 5 and 10m/s.
Figure 6. The Pmax vs. fin height (Lf) for four different values of
waste gas heat transfer coefficients.
Figure 7. The P vs. fin height (Lf) for three different values of
inlet gas velocities.
In order to know the net electric power the TEG module could
actually generate, the Pideal should minus the fan pumping power
to obtain the actual power which could be used in other purpose
without any cost uncounted. Figs. 8(a) and 8(b) show the effect
of fin height on the Pnet for three different inlet gas velocities (Vin
= 1, 5 and 10m/s) and two temperature difference (T = 200K
and 400K) with the same fin number N = 4. In Fig. 8(a) the Pnet
under higher inlet gas velocity (Vin = 10m/s) and smaller
temperature difference (T = 200K) exists an optimal fin height
for the increment in Pideal is less than in the fan pumping power,
otherwise, in Fig. 8(b) the Pnet with larger temperature difference
(T = 400K) for the same inlet velocity is still getting better. In
both figs. 8(a) and 8(b), as the Pnet under lower inlet gas velocity
(Vin = 1 and 5m/s), the Pnet are very close to the Pideal for the fan
pumping power is relatively smaller than Pideal.
(a) T = 200K
(b) T = 400K
Figure 8. The Pnet vs. fin height (Lf) for three different values of
inlet gas velocities and two different temperature differences.
Furthermore, if the fin height is fixed at 48mm and changes the
number of the plate-fin from 4 to 6 and 8, the variations of Pmax
with different fin number is as shown in Fig. 9. As can be seen
that increase the fin number can greatly improve the module
performance, and with higher waste gas heat transfer coefficient
the effect of the fin number on Pmax increment is more obvious.
As fin number increases from 4 to 8, Pmax improve about 1.85,
1.45, 1.04 and 0.69 times for heat transfer coefficient hh = 5, 10,
20 and 40 W/m2-K, respectively.
Similarly, the net electric power for different number of fin could
be evaluated. As shown in Figs. 11(a) and 11(b) the effect of fin
number on the Pnet for three different inlet gas velocities (Vin = 1,
5 and 10m/s) and two temperature difference (T = 200K and
400K) with the same fin height Lf = 48mm was investigated. The
net power seems to increase under all conditions and it is superior
under lower inlet velocity than higher ones for the Pideal is the
same under given temperature difference and waste gas heat
transfer coefficients, and the fan pumping power grows larger
under faster inlet velocity. At the same time, it can also be found
that the fan pumping power is relatively minor under T = 400K
than under T = 200K. For N = 8 under T = 200K the Pideal is
2.14W and the Pnet are 2.14, 2.04 and 1.45W for Vin = 1, 5 and
10m/s respectively, and under T = 400K the Pideal is 4.95W and
the Pnet are 4.95, 4.88 and 4.40W.

Figure 9. The Pmax vs. fin number (N) for different values of
waste gas heat transfer coefficients.
If the fin number of the plate-fin heat sink increases with the fin
base width and fin thickness keep fixed, the fin pitch would
become comparatively smaller and raise the pressure drop in the
chimney tunnel. Fig. 10 demonstrates the variations of the total
tunnel pressure drop P with the number of the plate-fin for three
different values of inlet gas velocities (Vin = 1, 5 and 10m/s)
with the same fin height Lf = 48mm. Apparently, the tunnel
pressure drop continues to go up due to both higher inlet gas
velocity and more fin number. For inlet gas velocities at 1, 5 and
10m/s, the pressure drop between fin number N = 4 and N = 8 are
0.0008, 0.036 and 0.051pa.
(a) T = 200K

(a) T = 200K
Figure 10. The P vs. fin number (N) for three different values of
inlet gas velocities. Figure 11. The Pnet vs. fin number (N) for three different values
of inlet gas velocities and two different temperature differences.
Conclusions
In this study, first, it was demonstrated that the plate-fin can
decrease the thermal resistance and the open circuit voltage Voc
with a fin can be significantly increased up to 5.7 times as
compared to TEG without fin. The predicted numerical data for
the power versus current (PI) curve are in good agreement
(within 12%) with the experimental data. Secondly, the
parametric study considering the fin height (Lf) and number of
fin (N) for the thermal-electrical characteristics about the electric
power generated from a TEG module used in a waste heat
recovery system under different waste gas convection heat
transfer coefficient was investigated numerically, and also take
into account the pressure drop in the chimney tunnel with built-in
plate-fin under different inlet waste gas velocities. For fixed fin
number N = 4, as fin height increases from 0 to 72mm, Pmax
improve about 32 to 163 times for different heat transfer
coefficient, and the increment of pressure drop are 0.0012, 0.015
and 0.061pa for inlet gas velocities at 1, 5 and 10m/s. As fin
number increases from 4 to 8 at the same fin height Lf = 48mm,
for different heat transfer coefficient Pmax raise around 0.69 to
1.85 times, and the pressure drop increase 0.0008, 0.036 and
0.051pa for inlet gas velocities at 1, 5 and 10m/s. At last, the net
power could be estimated by subtracting the fan pumping power
used for putting forward the waste gas in the chimney from the
electric power generated from the TEG module. Under high
velocity and small temperature difference there exists an optimal
net power as fin height increases at fixed fin number, and with
higher inlet gas velocity the net power generated decreases under
the same heat transfer coefficient and temperature difference. The
Pideal is 4.95W and the Pnet are 4.95, 4.88 and 4.40W for Vin = 1, 5
and 10m/s respectively for N = 8 and T = 400K.
Acknowledgments
Financial support of this paper was provided by NSC-101-2221-
E006-109-MY2, Taiwan, ROC.
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