engleski

Characterisation of Performances of Thermoelectric Generators for Energy Harvesting Applications

One of the most common ambient energy sources suitable for energy harvesting is waste heat emitted by machines, from hot pipes, from human and animal bodies (i.e., resulting from metabolism) or from radioactive materials. Heat emanated from humans is particularly interesting for energy harvesting applications, since it is possible to use it as a power source for wearable devices – and in particular for medical sensors. On the other hand, thermoelectric generators (TEGs) allow converting waste heat into electrical energy via the Seebeck effect. An experimental setup is developed in this work with the aim of charactering the performances of three types of commercially available TEG devices. Heat is hence brought into the system on the hot side of the TEGs, while it is dissipated via a heatsink on their cold side. Temperatures on both sides are measured with thermocouples and by using thermal imaging, while, concurrently, various electrical loads are connected to the harvesters. Multimeters are employed to measure the resulting electrical parameters (voltage and current), enabling the determination of the power output and the efficiency of the studied devices. The acquired data provide thus means of matching the analysed TEGs to the respective working conditions in adequate applications.

energy harvesting ; thermoelectric generator ; Seebeck effect ; efficiency ; experimental characterization

nije evidentirano