Numerical Investigations on Thermoelectric Recovery of SiC Ceramics for Supersonic Vehicles Structures

Abstract

The thermoelectric SiC structural materials for supersonic vehicles can convert intense aerodynamic heat to electricity simply by temperature difference. A general model of nose tip is developed to predict the thermal-electrical energy con-version performance of the thermoelectric SiC materials. The temperature distributions of model was obtained by solving the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations and the heat conduction equation. The largest temperature difference between the hot side and cold side of the hypothetical thermoelectric module is about 275 K. With the thermoelectric properties assumed constant in the presence of temperature gradient, the output power and thermoelectric efficiency of the model are calculated. The maximum of thermoelectric efficiency and output power of the model are 0.4×10-3W and 1.6×10-4%, respectively, at a current of 0.014 A. The thermoelectric performance of the model shows great potential for the application of SiC ceramic structures to thermoelectric generation from aerodynamic heat on supersonic vehicles.