Effect of various leg geometries on thermo-mechanical and power generation performance of thermoelectric devices

• Thermoelectric modules with various leg geometries were modeled and analyzed for two different temperature gradients.
• Disparities in temperature distributions, power outputs, and conversion efficiencies were limited.
• Magnitudes and distributions of thermal stresses in the legs were significantly affected by changing leg geometries.
• Thermal stress levels were smaller in the cylindrical and trapezoidal prism legs compare to the rectangular prism legs.

This study aims to investigate possible effect of various thermoelectric leg geometries on thermo-mechanical and power generation performances of thermoelectric devices. For this purpose, thermoelectric modules with various leg geometries were modeled and finite-element analyses for two different temperature gradients were carried out using ANSYS. Temperature distributions, power outputs, conversion efficiencies, thermal stresses in the legs were evaluated for each model. Significant differences in magnitudes and distributions of the thermal stresses in the legs occurred due to changing leg geometries. Thermal stresses in the rectangular prism and the cylindrical legs were 49.9 MPa and 43.3 MPa respectively for the temperature gradient of 100 °C.