A Novel Optimization Method for TEG System Performance Based on Temperature and Heat Flux

Abstract

The thermoelectric generator (TEG) can convert heat to electricity and is widely used. To overcome the limitation for low efficiency of thermoelectric materials, optimizing the performance of TEG in given system is necessary. This study proposes a method to match individual TEG components to the system environment based on two boundary conditions—temperature and heat flux. With this method, TEG geometrical parameters can be determined to optimize the system performance by varying temperature as an independent variable. Using this method, the TEG in an undersea Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (u‐RTG) is optimized. The TEG system exhibits an output power of 14.10 W when powered by a 200 W heat source. The simulate result in the comprehensive system model of u‐RTG is 14.04 W, which has 0.45% deviation from the TEG optimization result. It is proved that the TEG optimized by this method matches the system, the optimization results are accurate.