Influence of temperature on characters of thermoelectric generators based on test bed

Abstract

In order to achieve the energy recovery of the coolant heat for internal combustion engine (ICE) using the thermoelectric generation (TEG) technology, one test bed for studying the influence of temperature on the characters of thermoelectric generators was established and the relationship between the temperature and characters of thermoelectric generator was researched based on it. The results showed that the cooling effect improved with the increase of fan speed which the fan was installed in the vertical direction of the radiator, but the cooling effect had a limit speed value. And it also indicated that the forced air cooling was better than the natural convection cooling method which can effectively reduce the temperature of the cold end while it has little effect on the hot end temperature. Moreover, the Seebeck coefficient was reduced with the increase of temperature difference between the two ends of thermoelectric generator and the Seebeck coefficient was also declined with one end temperature rise when the other end temperature was constant. © 2014 Zongzheng Ma et al.