Effects of thermal contact resistance and thomson heating on the outputs of solar thermoelectric power generation system

We establish a mathematical model with numerical example of solar thermoelectric power generation system. The components' thermal resistances, thermal contact resistances at the interface between components and Thomson heating are all considered in the model. The inner effects include Seebeck effect, Peltier heating effect, Thomson effect and Joule effect. The thermoelectric material properties are all temperature dependent. From the mathematical model, the junction temperatures, the rate of heat flow at the junctions, the power output from the system and thermal efficiency of the system are formulated. Applying the model to a practical example in engineering, the system is evaluated to identify the effect of thermal contact resistance between components and the Thomson effect. The results indicate that neglecting thermal contact resistance between components and Thomson effect highly influences on the outputs of the system.