Effect of the density of TEGs on the efficiency of the generated electrical power in hot air flowing closed geometries: 3D numerical simulations approach

Abstract

Computer simulations of three different geometries of thermoelectric generator (TEG) appliances have been carried out to calculate the maximum power generated by a single TEG and the maximum total power generated by all the TEGs in the geometries. Among these three geometries, every aspect was the same except the number of TEGs, so the density of the number of TEGs facing hot flowing air was varied. We used single-TEG, three-TEG, and five-TEG models. Simulations were carried out at 120 °C for the hot flowing air and at 42 different cold side temperatures to see the effect at different temperature differences. We showed the effect of the density of the TEG number on the maximum power generated. Powers generated by a single TEG from each geometry and the total generated powers in different geometries are compared. We have used the results we obtained to calculate the total electric energy generated by these TEGs in the wall of an industrial chimney for a six-month duration (between October 2017 and April 2018 in the winter season) by using real daily temperature data at a chosen site (the city of Kırıkkale) taken from the Turkey Meteorological Institute.