An experimental study on the effect of structure of hot side and cool side heatsink to performances of thermoelectric generator unit using heat source from exhaust gas of motorcycle

Tóm tắt

This study investigates the effect of Hot Side Heatsink (HSH) and Cool Side Heatsink (CSH) on the temperature of the hot and cool side and output power of the Thermoelectric Generator Unit (TGU). The structure of the HSH and the CSH is designed and manufactured based on the results of calculating the heat transfer through the TGU with Matlab Script and simulation with ANSYS software. The TGU consists of 08 TEP1-142T300 ThermoElectric Generator (TEG) modules connected in series and use heat from the exhaust gas of the Suzuki Sapphire 125 engine was conducted in the range of speed from 20km/h to 60km/h. The results show that increasing the number of fins of HSH and CSH leads to the increase of output power of the TGU. The output powers between test cases are significantly different when the vehicle speed increases. The output power of the TGU can reach about 1.1W at 20km/h, and 14.1W at 60km/h. The temperature ​​of the hot side and cool side of the TGU obtained from the calculation, simulation and experiment are very different. This difference is due to the quality of the material, the surface roughness and the dust, dirty of the HSH and CSH cause significant differences between the practical and theoretical. This study has important implications, as a basis for (1) calculating and estimating the actual thermal conductivity of the material of HSH and CSH; and (2) optimizing calculation the structure of the HSH and CSH to enhance the capacity and durability of the TGU.