A thermoelectric generator using loop heat pipe and design match for maximum-power generation

Abstract
The present study focuses on the thermoelectric generator (TEG) using loop heat pipe (LHP) and design match for maximum-power generation. The TEG uses loop heat pipe, a passive cooling device, to dissipate heat without consuming power and free of noise. The experiments for a TEG with 4W rated power show that the LHP performs very well with overall thermal resistance 0.35 K W-1, from the cold side of TEG module to the ambient. The LHP is able to dissipate heat up to 110W and is maintenance free. The TEG design match for maximum-power generation, called “near maximum-power point operation (nMPPO)”, is studied to eliminate the MPPT (maximum-power point tracking controller). nMPPO is simply a system design which properly matches the output voltage of TEG with the battery. It is experimentally shown that TEG using design match for maximum-power generation (nMPPO) performs better than TEG with MPPT.

Citation
A thermoelectric generator using loop heat pipe and design match for maximum-power generation 2015 Applied Thermal Engineering

Publisher
Elsevier BV

Journal
Applied Thermal Engineering

DOI
10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.08.059

Additional Links
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1359431115008558

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