A Theoretic Model of Thermoelectric Device Using Automobile Exhaust Gas for Power Generation

A theoretical model of thermoelectric device was proposed that uses automobile exhaust gas for power generation. According to the principal of Fourier's law of heat conduction and the Peltier effect, a thermodynamics analysis was conducted in which expressions for calculating the output power and the efficiency were derived. Some influencing factors, such as the temperature distribution of the TEG along with the numbers PN couples serially connected and the temperatures of exhaust gas and cooling air on the total power efficiency were discussed. It is shown that this model is quite simple to be used for optimizing the design of TEG model and its performance evaluation.