熱電発電デバイスの発電量向上のための素子面積比の検討

抄録

On a thermoelectric generator (TEG) , p-type and n-type thermoelectric elements are generally used to make a device. When a TEG is composed of p-type and n-type materials with different electrical and thermal properties, the performance of the entire device may be degraded by either the p-type or n-type element if the element shape is the same. In this study, we calculated the maximum power per unit area of the π-type TEG by theoretical calculation and simulation using a finite element method. The maximum power per unit area was calculated by changing the electrical and thermal conductivities, and the results indicate that the power increased by changing the area between p-type and n-type when these properties were different. In addition, when the thermal conductivities are different between the p-type and n-type thermoelectric elements, we found that the results were different between simulation and theoretical calculation, because a temperature gradient is created at the substrate of the low-temperature side.