Improving the performance of a thermoelectric power system using a flat-plate heat pipe

doi:10.1016/j.cjche.2018.03.019

Chin.J.Chem.Eng. ›› 2019, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (1): 44-53.DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2018.03.019

• Fluid Dynamics and Transport Phenomena • Previous Articles Next Articles

Improving the performance of a thermoelectric power system using a flat-plate heat pipe

Suchen Wu¹, Yiwen Ding¹, Chengbin Zhang¹, Dehao Xu²

1 Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China;
2 Nanjing ACME Electronics Cooling Service Inc., Nanjing 211101, China

Received:2018-01-02 Revised:2018-03-19 Online:2019-01-31 Published:2019-01-28
Contact: Chengbin Zhang
Supported by:
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1737104), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20170082), the Special Program for Applied Research on Super Computation of the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund (the second phase) (U1501501), and the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province.

Improving the performance of a thermoelectric power system using a flat-plate heat pipe

Suchen Wu¹, Yiwen Ding¹, Chengbin Zhang¹, Dehao Xu²

1 Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China;
2 Nanjing ACME Electronics Cooling Service Inc., Nanjing 211101, China

通讯作者: Chengbin Zhang
基金资助:
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1737104), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20170082), the Special Program for Applied Research on Super Computation of the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund (the second phase) (U1501501), and the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province.

Abstract

Abstract: A gravitational flat-plate heat pipe is designed and fabricated in this paper to serve as a heat spreader to diffuse the local heat source to the hot side of the thermoelectric power module. Based on this, an experimental test for the thermoelectric power generation system is conducted to study the influences of the heat spreader on the temperature uniformity and power generation performance when exposing to a local heat source. In addition, the effects of the heating power, inclination angle, and local heat source size on the power generation performance of the thermoelectric power module using a flat-plate heat pipe as a heat spreader are examined and compared with that using a metal plate. The results indicate that the gravitational flat-plate heat pipe has considerable advantages over the metal plate in the temperature uniformity. The superiority of temperature uniformity in the improvement of power generation performance for the thermoelectric power system using a heat pipe is demonstrated. Particularly, the heat pipe shows good adaptability to placement mode and the local heat source size, which is beneficial to the application in the thermoelectric power generation.

Key words: Thermoelectric, Heat pipe, Heat spreader, Power generation

摘要： A gravitational flat-plate heat pipe is designed and fabricated in this paper to serve as a heat spreader to diffuse the local heat source to the hot side of the thermoelectric power module. Based on this, an experimental test for the thermoelectric power generation system is conducted to study the influences of the heat spreader on the temperature uniformity and power generation performance when exposing to a local heat source. In addition, the effects of the heating power, inclination angle, and local heat source size on the power generation performance of the thermoelectric power module using a flat-plate heat pipe as a heat spreader are examined and compared with that using a metal plate. The results indicate that the gravitational flat-plate heat pipe has considerable advantages over the metal plate in the temperature uniformity. The superiority of temperature uniformity in the improvement of power generation performance for the thermoelectric power system using a heat pipe is demonstrated. Particularly, the heat pipe shows good adaptability to placement mode and the local heat source size, which is beneficial to the application in the thermoelectric power generation.

关键词: Thermoelectric, Heat pipe, Heat spreader, Power generation

Suchen Wu, Yiwen Ding, Chengbin Zhang, Dehao Xu. Improving the performance of a thermoelectric power system using a flat-plate heat pipe[J]. Chin.J.Chem.Eng., 2019, 27(1): 44-53.

Suchen Wu, Yiwen Ding, Chengbin Zhang, Dehao Xu. Improving the performance of a thermoelectric power system using a flat-plate heat pipe[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2019, 27(1): 44-53.

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Improving the performance of a thermoelectric power system using a flat-plate heat pipe

Improving the performance of a thermoelectric power system using a flat-plate heat pipe

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