Development of a mathematical model for optimizing the design of an automotive thermoelectric generator taking into account the influence of its hydraulic resistance on the engine power

Prospects and Problems of Increasing the Automotive Thermoelectric Generators Efficiency

“…As a rule, the resistance of convective heat transfer is the largest in the thermal circuit of ATEG or comparable to the resistance of TEM. For example, the thermal resistance of convective heat transfer was 39-76% of the total resistance in the thermal circuit of TEG, decreasing with the growth of engine rotation n e (Figure 2) in the mathematical model for TEG with hexagonal heat exchanger and longitudinal finning described in [25]. The design of the TAG is similar to the one described in article [26], but the contact resistance of the joints was also taken into account which are also very significant.…”

“…The hot TEG heat exchanger should have a large area for the installation of serial flat TEMs. Constructions with 2 [27], 4 [28] and 6 [25,26,29,30] external faces are known. In Figure 3, the elements of TEG with such constructions are marked: 1 -hot heat exchanger; 2 -TEM; 3 -cold heat exchanger; 4 and 5 -diffuser and conceiver.…”

“…To intensify convective heat transfer in a hot heat exchanger, longitudinal [25] or oblique [29] fins and a displacer [25,29,30] are used, although they increase the hydraulic resistance. To reduce the length of the thermal way, the fins must run perpendicular to the plane of the heat exchanger, but in terms of manufacturability, it is convenient to make the fins in the form of folded plates [34][35][36] (Figure 5a).…”

“…According to parameter P, the heat exchanger with dimples turned out to be better than two designs with straight fins. (c) with six walls [25,33].…”

“…However, such approaches do not allow to take into account the actual drop in the engine power from the pressure drop, therefore it is necessary to introduce the ICE model and consider the mutual behavior of the internal combustion engine and ATEG, as was done in [21,25,30]. For this purpose, approximate dependencies of the power drop of the internal combustion engine on the volume flow EG and additional hydraulic resistance of the exhaust pipe was constructed.…”