Simulation study of phase change materials operating in thermoelectric devices
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Orjuela Abril, Martha Sofia | 2021-06-04
In this paper, a computerized analysis is performed to evaluate the effect of phase
change materials on the performance of thermoelectric generators. This study was conducted
using commercial OpenFOAM software. Analyze changes in temperature, potential and
efficiency due to phase change materials. The study evaluated a variety of geometric and
operational conditions, such as changes in material height and heat flux. The results obtained
indicate that the presence of phase change material allows a significant increase in the
temperature difference between the surfaces. The temperature difference is increased by 35%
with a height of 3.25 mm. The temperature difference increases the potential of the
thermoelectric generator and increases the maximum output voltage by 21%. Overall, phase
change materials have been shown to improve thermoelectric efficiency by 23%. For test
conditions, the maximum efficiency is 4.77%. From this result, it can be concluded that the phase
change material is a promising alternative for improving the low efficiency of thermoelectric
generators due to their heat storage capacity.
LEER
