Premium
Investigation of thermoelectric generators connected in different configurations for micro‐grid applications
Author(s) -
Thankakan Rakesh,
Samuel Nadar Edward Rajan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.4015
Subject(s) - series and parallel circuits , voltage , power (physics) , series (stratigraphy) , internal resistance , maximum power principle , topology (electrical circuits) , open circuit voltage , square (algebra) , control theory (sociology) , computer science , materials science , electrical engineering , mathematics , physics , engineering , thermodynamics , geometry , battery (electricity) , paleontology , control (management) , artificial intelligence , biology
Summary This research work investigates the power‐current ( P‐I ) and voltage‐current ( V‐I ) characteristics of the thermoelectric modules (TEMs) in series‐parallel configurations under homogeneous and heterogeneous temperature difference (Δ T ) condition. To study its performance, 5 different series‐parallel combinations were formed using 16 TEMs. The comparisons among the different configurations have been done to determine the optimal series‐parallel configuration. The total load power extracted from 16 individually connected TEMs was 18.2 W, which was placed as a reference load power. The optimal series‐parallel combination for maximizing the load power is square series‐parallel configuration, whose maximum load power is 95.5%, compared to the reference load power. Moreover, in square series‐parallel configuration, the total internal resistance value that remains constant is equal to the internal resistance of a single TEM, and the total open‐circuit voltage increases gradually on adding any number of TEMs. Thus, it produces higher load voltage and higher load current simultaneously, which is recommended to power DC micro‐grid applications. Furthermore, the series, parallel, and square series‐parallel configurations are connected as star to obtain 3 separate DC output to power the same application. The performance of TEMs under various configurations is analyzed, and the obtain results are verified experimentally.