The temperature distribution and electrical performance of fluid heat exchanger-based thermoelectric generator

Thermoelectric generator (TEG) has great potential in waste heat recovery. In this paper a TEG system has been build up which consists of a Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric module and two fluid heat exchangers. The temperature distribution, electrical performance and heat components of the system have been investigated via both experiment and numerical simulation. It is revealed that the influence of fluid velocity on the temperature distribution is weak until the velocity is very slow, and the influence of Peltier effect on the temperature distribution is also limited in this system. Furthermore, attention should be paid to the contact electrical resistance induced by soldering, especially when the hot side temperature of the Bi2Te3 module is expected up to 473 K. Besides that, heat component analysis suggests that Peltier effect should not be ignored in optimization analysis of thermoelectric module.