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The Influence of the Inner Topology of Cooling Units on the Performance of Automotive Exhaust-Based Thermoelectric Generators

  • Topical Collection: International Conference on Thermoelectrics 2017
  • Published:
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Abstract

Automotive exhaust-based thermoelectric generators are currently a hot topic in energy recovery. The waste heat of automotive exhaust gas can be converted into electricity by means of thermoelectric modules. Generally, inserting fins into the cooling unit contributes to enhancing the heat transfer for a higher power output. However, the introduction of fins will result in a pressure drop in the cooling system. In current research, in order to enhance the heat transfer and avoid a large pressure drop, a cooling unit with cylindrical grooves on the interior surface was proposed. To evaluate the performance of the cylindrical grooves, different inner topologies, including a smooth interior surface,a smooth interior surface with inserted fins and an interior surface with cylindrical grooves, were compared. The results revealed that compared with the smooth interior surface, the smooth interior surface with inserted fins and the interior surface with cylindrical grooves both enhanced the heat transfer, but the interior surface with cylindrical grooves obtained a lower pressure drop. To improve the performance of the cylindrical grooves, different groove-depth ratios were tried, and the results showed that a groove-depth ratio of 0.081 could provide the best overall performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubei Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Automotive Components, Automobile Engineering Institute, Wuhan University of Technology, 205 Luoshi Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, 430070, China

    D. C. Zhu, C. Q. Su, Y. D. Deng, Y. P. Wang & X. Liu

Authors
  1. D. C. Zhu
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  2. C. Q. Su
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  3. Y. D. Deng
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  4. Y. P. Wang
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  5. X. Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Y. P. Wang.

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Zhu, D.C., Su, C.Q., Deng, Y.D. et al. The Influence of the Inner Topology of Cooling Units on the Performance of Automotive Exhaust-Based Thermoelectric Generators. J. Electron. Mater. 47, 3320–3329 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5959-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5959-x

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