Parametric study and design optimization of a thermoelectric generator system for waste heat recovery

This article proposes a transient simulation based on Comsol software to investigate the behavior of a segmented thermoelectric device (S-TEG) exposed to a pulsed heat flux. It is found that thermoelectric generators (TEG) incorporating segmented materials have offered greater thermal and electrical performance. An increase in the electrical output power and efficiency of 60% and 40% were reached respectively. Furthermore, the effect of segmentation is most noticeable for short TE leg lengths and large cross-sectional areas. For the S-TEG with a leg length of 2 mm, there is a 104% increase in output power compared to the TEG with a leg length of 3 mm. The effect of asymmetric TE legs on the improvement of the performance of the segmented TEG was carried out. It was found that when a pulsed heat source is applied, the performance of S-TEGs are maximum when the N-leg area is lower than the P-leg area (A(N)/A(P) <1). Therefore, to attain the highest TEG performance, an asymmetric shape of AN < A(P) is required.