为了利用热电器件回收汽车尾气的废热进行发电,构建了一个可模拟汽车尾气温差发电装置的热电器件测试平台,测试了不同热源温度、冷源温度、安装压力以及相同冷热源温差而不同冷热源温度下国产某型Bi2Te3基低温热电器件的输出性能。结果表明,单个热电器件的输出性能与其安装压力和冷热源温差成正比,在相同冷热源温差条件下可适当降低冷源温度以提高其性能;随着冷热源温差增大,热电器件的最大功率所对应的输出电流明显增大;利用汽车发动机自身冷却系统中约90℃的冷却水对汽车尾气温差发电装置进行冷却时,当热端温度达到350℃的最大耐温值,安装压力大于57kPa时,单个热电器件的最大输出功率在3W以上。最后,基于该热电器件提出了汽车尾气温差发电装置的优化设计策略及其工作条件。
To recover the automobile exhaust waste heat with thermoelectric modules, a test setup for Bi2Te3 based thermoelectric modules designed and fabricated by the authors can simulate the automobile exhaust thermoelectric generator (AETEG), the performance of single thermoelectric module with different hot source temperature, cold source temperature, installed pressure, the same temperature difference but different cold source and hot source temperature were tested, respectively. The results indicate that the performance of single thermoelectric module is proportional to the in- stalled pressure and temperature difference between its hot source and cold source, it can be maxi- mized by lowering the cold source temperature appropriately with the same temperature difference, the output current corresponding to the peak power increases as the temperature difference between its hot source and cold source is enlarged. As to AETEG using the about 90℃ water of internal combustion engine as the coolant, the maximum power of single thermoelectric module is above 3W when the hot side temperature is close to the endurance value (350℃) and the installer pressure is above 57kPa. Finally, the optimization design strategy and operation condition of AETEG based on the thermoelectric modules stated above are provided.