Energy efficiency of thermoelectric materials: A three-dimensional study

This work presents a three-dimensional (3D) model for the energy conversion efficiency of thermoelectric (TE) materials. Analytical series solutions are obtained for the temperature and electric fields in a TE element under 3D conditions. The model allows detailed examination of the effects of the l...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied physics 2019-08, Vol.126 (8)
Main Author: Jin, Z.-H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Bismuth tellurides
Electric fields
Energy conversion efficiency
Energy efficiency
Heat transfer
Heat transfer coefficients
One dimensional models
Temperature
Thermoelectric materials
Three dimensional models
Upper bounds
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This work presents a three-dimensional (3D) model for the energy conversion efficiency of thermoelectric (TE) materials. Analytical series solutions are obtained for the temperature and electric fields in a TE element under 3D conditions. The model allows detailed examination of the effects of the lateral geometrical dimensions and the surface heat transfer coefficient on the energy efficiency of TE materials. It is analytically proved that the energy efficiency of the 3D model approaches that of the commonly used one-dimensional (1D) model when the lateral dimensions go to infinity or the surface heat transfer coefficient goes to zero. The numerical results for a bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) TE material show that the energy efficiency predicted by the 1D model represents an upper bound of the efficiency. The peak efficiency decreases with decreasing lateral dimension for a fixed leg length of the TE element. The peak efficiency also decreases with increasing lateral surface heat transfer coefficient. The present 3D model may be used as a quantitative tool to design TE modules with alleviated efficiency reduction due to the 3D effects.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.5111559