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The numerical analysis of a thermoelectric refrigeration system was carried out by the finite element method, using ANSYS V13 software. The geometrical model was developed and analysed, with design modular and thermal-electric mechanical multi physic solver interface. Bi-Te and Pb-Te thermoelectric modules were considered for analysing their perfor...
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The objective of this work is to develop the efficiency of vapour absorption system by addition the steam ejector cycle. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a numerical implement that is greatly accurate to simulate a high number of applications and developments. The CFD analysis has appeared as a viable skill to provide dynamic and efficient des...
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... Generally, TEG models can be divided into thermal resistance models and numerical models, where the latter are more [23]. Nevertheless, the high precision of the 3D numerical model comes at the expense of high computing requirements, and solving the thermoelectric coupling equations will consume a considerable amount of time and computing power [24,25]. Due to computational complexity, research that combines numerical models and genetic algorithms mostly focuses on single thermocouples rather than system-level TEGs. ...
A traditional system-level thermoelectric model requires enormous computing power and time for simulation
analysis, especially when multiple optimization algorithms are combined. This paper initially proposed a comprehensive surrogate mode for the accurate modeling, field analysis, and fast optimization of thermoelectric generators. The surrogate model is made up of an artificial neural network (ANN) and a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN), which can achieve a prediction accuracy of 97 % and a structural similarity (SSIM)
of 0.954. Using a twisted tape annular thermoelectric generator (TT-ATEG) as an example, the generalization capability of the comprehensive surrogate model is demonstrated by studying the change of the twisted tape geometry parameters on the output performance and field distribution of the annular thermoelectric generator. The combination of the surrogate model and NSGA-II achieves fast optimization of key parameters under different working conditions, and the computational efficiency is improved by 99.97 %. Meanwhile, the cGAN part can predict the pressure and heat flow fields within 5s to provide intuitive visual feedback. The trained surrogate model requires less computer arithmetic power compared to the traditional multi-physics field simulation software. The successful application of the comprehensive surrogate model in this work provides a new solution idea and an optimization method for system-level TEG.
... A study on the performance enhancement of thermoelectric refrigerators was made in these papers [27,28]. Using ANSYS software, two different semiconductor materials Bi-Te and Pb-Te were considered for the numerical and comparative analysis. ...
... It was concluded that coefficient of performance (COP) of the system reduces with an increase in the temperature difference. Under the same operating condition, the COP of the Bi-Te system was found to be 13.46% higher than the COP of the Pb-Te system [28]. An experimental analysis of a PV-TEC solar refrigerator was conducted by Dia et al. [29], and they reported an inner temperature range of 5 to 10°C with a COP of 0.3. ...
A compressor is the most power-consuming component in a refrigeration system, and energy scarcity in the form of electricity has become a grave challenge in today’s world. Replacing the compressor with solar-powered clean energy could be an efficient alternative to reduce energy consumption significantly. The system presented comprises a Solar-powered Thermal Refrigeration System based on the Peltier Effect, functioning on a cooling module. Since the system is solar-powered, an automatic solar tracker that incorporates Light Dependent Resistors and a servo motor is integrated to supply maximum power by continuously orienting the panel in the direction of sunlight and thus always keeping it charged. This research aims to analyse the performance of a solar-powered thermoelectric refrigeration system. The model developed is a promising alternative for domestic refrigerators, accounting for a 44–63% drop in power consumption to cool a commensurate capacity refrigerator of 2.6L. From definitive experimentation, the lowest temperature of 15.15°C was achieved within the refrigeration chamber after powering the circuit for 136 seconds. Initially, the air inside the refrigeration chamber at 22.48°C (ambient temperature) was dropped by 7.33°C. A high COP of 0.54 is achieved on experimentation.
... The max COP of TEC and TER was determined to be 3.0 and 0.65, respectively. Satheeshkumar Palaniappan et al. [28] carried an investigation on the conduct of the thermoelectric refrigeration system by utilizing the ANSYS software. Bi-Te and Pb-Te were considered as semiconducting materials for the examination. ...
Global commercial market forecasted around 45 billion US dollars for refrigeration equipment in 2021. Currently used refrigerants have high global warming potential (GWP); hence, environment-friendly refrigeration system using the Peltier effect is being considered for this research. The thermodynamic refrigeration system has a low coefficient of performance (COP), when compared to chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and hydrofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigeration systems. The design of various models of the thermoelectric refrigerator (TER) is created using ANSYS workbench. Each new design is analysed with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tool by altering insulating materials such as nickel with aluminium foil and polyurethane foam in airflow streamline of thermoelectric refrigeration. Temperature differences obtained between 7.5 and 9.4 °C are tabulated after each run using the finite volume method. Optimization of inner design and insulation material is done by using computational fluid dynamics analysis in the ANSYS FLUENT software. The results of sharp edge design have proved better when compared to partially round edge design and fillet design, 7.85 °C for the cold region and 54.85 °C for the hot region. Further research is expected using the multistage Peltier module and smart temperature control unit to improve the COP of the TER system.
... Other recent papers aimed at optimizing the performance of TEGs using different optimization algorithms and strategies are presented in Table 1. The findings of these papers are very commendable, however, a major limitation to the application of these results in the manufacture of efficient TEGs is the large amount of time required to solve the TE coupled equations [21,22]. This is because of how cumbersome the TE equations are when expressed in three-dimensions and all operating conditions like radiative and convective heat losses are accounted for to mimic real-life operating conditions. ...
The rising levels of global warming in the environment owing to emissions from fossil-fuel-based engines has increased the search for efficient clean energy systems. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) standout as a promising energy conversion device which can directly convert heat to electricity. Several optimization studies have been carried out on these devices to improve their power generation rate and efficiencies while guaranteeing long lifespan. However, the limitations of finite element methods (FEMs) in easily providing optimization guidelines at a fast rate has hindered the manufacture of TEGs with high thermo-mechanical performance.
This is why this paper presents the first ever artificial intelligence enabled optimization of a TEG conducted via deep neural networks (DNNs). Previous research on this topic completely neglected the mechanical performance and consequently, the service lifetime of the TEG when exposed to thermal operating conditions. To fill this gap, the effects of strategic parameters on the power output, efficiency and thermal stress performances of the TEG are investigated. These parameters are the hot and cold junction temperatures/heat transfer coefficients, incident heat flux, external load resistance, TE leg height, area, and area ratio. The DNN is fed with verified three-dimensional FEM simulations carried out on the ANSYS Workbench platform. The FEM results exhibit almost perfect correlation with experimental data which establishes the precision of the model.
Results are that the DNN model is able to provide the necessary optimization guidelines for maximum thermo-mechanical performance in just 8 seconds compared to the 8 hours required by the FEM. The TEGs that were modelled using the DNN optimization guidelines improved the power, efficiency and mechanical performance of the unoptimized TEG by 11.94%, 14.17%, and 91%, respectively. These results are sufficient to provide useful guidelines at a fast rate for the fabrication of high-efficiency TEGs that will operate for a long time.
... The overall heat transfer coefficient of the PHE, U and the effective heating surface area of the PHE can be determined now: (38) in which R fh and R fc are the heat resistance due to fouling on the hot and cold sides of the plate that are ignored. Also, h h , h c , t and k are the convective heat transfer in the hot and cold sides, plate thickness and its thermal conductivity. ...
... In Fig. 2 the output voltage and voltage losses of the PEMFC are verified with those reported in [37]. In addition, Fig. 3 shows the COP of the TEC at different temperature differences that are verified with the results presented in [38]. Since the models of the PEMFC and TEC are validated, more detailed results are calculated and presented in the following to understand the cycle behavior and know its performance. ...
... The exergy and energy efficiency β η ( , ), fuel energy saving ratio (FESR), and reduction of CO 2 versus the current density are depicted in Table 2 The constants, physical and chemical properties. V-act [37] V-ohm[37] V-conc [37] V-FC[37] V-act-present work V-ahm-present work V-conc-present work V-FC-present work Ref. [38] Present work Fig. 3. The COP of the TEC at different temperature differences between hot and cold sides compared with [38] for Bi-Te. A. cm 2 the overall efficiency of the CCHP cycle (η CCHP ) reduces from 86% to 67% that is considerably high in comparison with the conventional systems. ...
The main purpose of the present study is to propose a combined cooling; heating and power cycle in microscale to be portable, maintenance free, undetectable, environmentally friendly and can provide the energy demand of a single-family when access to energy suppliers is limited. The prime mover of the cycle is a polymer exchange membrane fuel cell. Heat is recovered from a low-quality waste of 80 °C and water condensate is also recovered from the electrochemical products for domestic hot water. A thermoelectric cooler is used as the cooling system. The mathematical models of the fuel cell and the thermoelectric cooler are coded and the results of simulations are validated with the published data in the literature. The results show that the models are qualified and they can be trusted to be combined for proposing a new micro combined cooling, heating, and power system. The results show that the cycle is capable of producing 2.79 kW of electricity, 3.04 kW of heat and 26.8 W of cooling. The overall efficiency of the trigeneration cycle has reached 76.94% and a fuel saving of 43.25% is achieved. The exergy efficiency is 53.86%. In addition, the carbon dioxide production has reduced about 2.58 kg.hr⁻¹. The overall weight of the proposed cycle is estimated less than 100 kg. The exergy analysis introduces the fuel cell as the most exergy destructor.
... With the development of thermoelectric material (TEM) [5,6] and thermoelectric cooling technology [7,8], its cooling performance has been significantly improved. The heat absorbed by the Bi-Te system was 28.42 % higher than that by the Pb-Te [9]. In addition, it has been applied in all walks of life, such as net zero energy buildings [10], thermoelectric refrigerator [11], a thermoelectric cooler for CPU [12], and thermoelectric air-conditioning system [13]. ...
... After the manipulations based on the Galerkin weighting scheme [18], the differential equations become the algebraic finite element equations, as shown as following [19][20][21][22]. ...
A finite element method (FEM) model for the hybrid PV-TE uni-couple is presented to determine the optimal geometry of the thermoelectric generator (TEG) element for the maximum efficiency. The three-dimensional (3D) governing equations of the thermoelectric for the heat transfer are solved using the FEM based on the temperature dependent properties of TEG materials. The geometric parameters of the TEG were anlyzed in the simulation include the ratio of the area of n- and p-type (An/Ap), the length and the area of the TEG. The result shows that for different areas and different lengths of TEG, the maximum power outputs of the PV-TE all occur with An/Ap = 1 which is different from the TEG solely optimization. This study will provide the valuable reference for PV-TE design.
... By testing different materials, the authors confirmed the decisive influence of the thermoelectric properties on the module behavior. Palaniappan and Palanisamy [14] carried a similar study, also using finite element method, however by using ANSYS V13 software for performing the simulations. ...
This paper presents a numerical computation and analysis of the numerical scheme order of the two-dimensional temperature distribution in cold substrate of thermoelectric coolers with the presence of a discrete heat source. The finite difference method is applied to obtain the linear system of equations and the temperature at each node of the domain. The numerical code is implemented in the free software package GNU Octave. In the first part, a mesh independency study is carried on in order to establish a relation between accuracy and computational cost, comparing the simulated results with results from an approximate analytical solution available in the literature. It is observed excellent agreement between numerical and the analytical results. In the second part, an analysis of the overall order of the numerical scheme is carried on by considering numerical solutions for three different meshes and different formulations of the boundary conditions. Results show that the overall order of the numerical scheme is first-order even if full second-order discretization scheme is applied for all grid points, due to the presence of the discrete heat source. Those results are observed for the considered discretization schemes and are confirmed after using a continuous formulation for the heat source term.
... Qian and Ren [8] investigated cooling performance of transverse thermoelectric devices and found that transverse refrigerators may propose higher cooling capacity with some compromise in efficiency when it is compared to their longitudinal counterparts. Palaniappan and Palanisamy [9] performed a numerical investigation on thermoelectric refrigeration system for two different thermoelectric material. Their results show that the heat absorbed by Bi-Te system is considerably higher than that of Pb-Te system at ambient temperature conditions. ...
... The heat absorbed by the Bi-Te system was also higher than that by the Pb-Te. It was concluded that even though the figure of merit is higher for the Pb-Te at a very high temperature range, it shows a lower performance compared to the Bi-Te, when it is operated at ambient temperature conditions [20]. Gao et al. investigated the thermal stress distribution, mechanical properties, and thermoelectric properties of a thermoelectric module (TEM) that was based on hot-pressed materials. ...
This work proposes a method for reducing mechanical stresses induced in thermoelectric (TE) structure to increase the operational life of the device. For this purpose, based on preliminary studies of the deformation and stress contours of existing thermoelectric modules, a new circular arrangement for the thermoelements layout is designed. Numerical simulations for various geometries of TE modules have been done to investigate their thermomechanical/structural behavior under the same operating conditions. Simulation results show a significant reduction in the shear stress, the von Mises stress, and the total deflection relative to the existing rectangular layout design. In order to prove our finite element analysis is correct, two experiments have been done: 1) shear testing for stress analysis; 2) shadow moiré technique for deformation analysis. The result obtained from experiments is then compared with the results from their simulated model in ANSYS. There is pretty good agreement between manual calculation, experiments, and simulation results. In addition to all these, theoretical calculations of the stresses result from the bending moment and transverse shear force have been done. It is concluded that the new layout reduced the maximum stresses and the total deflections, which can greatly influence the operation lifetime of the components of the thermoelectric module.
