Miguel Angel Olivares-Robles

Optimization of Two-Stage Peltier Modules: Structure and Exergetic Efficiency

In this paper we undertake the theoretical analysis of a two-stage semiconductor thermoelectric module (TEM) which contains an arbitrary and different number of thermocouples, n1 and n2, in each stage (pyramid-styled TEM). The analysis is based on a dimensionless entropy balance set of equations. We study the effects of n1 and n2, the flowing electric currents through each stage, the applied temperatures and the thermoelectric properties of the semiconductor materials on the exergetic efficiency. Our main result implies that the electric currents flowing in each stage must necessarily be different with a ratio about 4.3 if the best thermal performance and the highest temperature difference possible between the cold and hot side of the device are pursued. This fact had not been pointed out before for pyramid-styled two stage TEM. The ratio n1/n2 should be about 8.

Thermoelectric System in Different Thermal and Electrical Configurations: Its Impact in the Figure of Merit

In this work, we analyze different configurations of a thermoelectric system (TES) composed of three thermoelectric generators (TEGs). We present the following considerations: (a) TES thermally and electrically connected in series (SC); (b) TES thermally and electrically connected in parallel (PSC); and (c) parallel thermally and series electrical connection (SSC). We assume that the parameters of the TEGs are temperature-independent. The systems are characterized by three parameters, as it has been showed in recent investigations, namely, its internal electrical resistance, R, thermal conductance under open electrical circuit condition, K, and Seebeck coefficient α. We derive the equivalent parameters for each of the configurations considered here and calculate the Figure of Merit Z for the equivalent system. We show the impact of the configuration of the system on Z, and we suggest optimum configuration. In order to justify the effectiveness of the equivalent Figure of Merit, the corresponding efficiency has been calculated for each configuration.

Viscoelastic Effects on the Entropy Production in Oscillatory Flow between Parallel Plates with Convective Cooling

The heat transfer problem of a zero-mean oscillatory flow of a Maxwell fluid between infinite parallel plates with boundary conditions of the third kind is considered. With these conditions, the amount of heat entering or leaving the system depends on the external temperature as well as on the convective heat transfer coefficient. The local and global time-averaged entropy production are computed, and the consequences of convective cooling of the plates are also assessed. It is found that the global entropy production is a minimum for certain suitable combination of the physical parameters. For a discrete set of values of the oscillatory Reynolds number, the extracted heat from one of the plates shows maxima.

Analysis of a Hybrid Thermoelectric Microcooler: Thomson Heat and Geometric Optimization

In this work, we analyze the thermodynamics and geometric optimization of thermoelectric elements in a hybrid two-stage thermoelectric micro cooler (TEMC). We propose a novel procedure to improve the performance of the micro cooler based on optimum geometric parameters, cross sectional area (A) and length (L), of the semiconductor elements. Our analysis takes into account the Thomson effect to show its role on the performance of the system. We obtain dimensionless temperature spatial distributions, coefficient of performance ( C O P ) and cooling power ( Q c ) in terms of the electric current for different values of the geometric ratio ω = A / L . In our analysis we consider two cases: (a) the same materials in both stages (homogeneous system); and (b) different materials in each stage (hybrid system). We introduce the geometric parameter, W = ω 1 / ω 2 , to optimize the micro device considering the geometric parameters of both stages, w 1 and w 2 . Our results show the optimal configuration of materials that must be used in each stage. The Thomson effect leads to a slight improvement on the performance of the micro cooler. We determine the optimal electrical current to obtain the best performance of the TEMC. Geometric parameters have been optimized and results show that the hybrid system reaches a maximum cooling power 15.9 % greater than the one-stage system (with the same electric current I = 0.49 A), and 11% greater than a homogeneous system, when ω = 0.78 . The optimization of the ratio in the number of thermocouples in each stage shows that ( C O P ) and ( Q c ) increase as the number of thermocouples in the second stage increase too, but with W = 0.94 . We show that when two materials with different performances are placed in each stage, the optimal configuration of materials in the stages of the system must be determined to obtain a better performance of the hybrid two-stage TEMC system. These results are important because we offer a novel procedure to optimize a thermoelectric micro cooler considering the geometry of materials at a micro level.

On Different Derivations of Telegrapher’s Type Kinetic Equations

In this paper we first review a number of methods which have been used by several authors to derive hyperbolic type transport equations. Using these results as a background we study how such equations may be obtained from the theory of Brownian motion. Critical remarks about the resulting equations are also included.

Modelling of the Peltier effect in magnetic multilayers

We model the charge, spin, and heat currents in ferromagnetic metal?normal metal?normal metal trilayer structures in the two current model, taking into account bulk and interface thermoelectric properties as well as Joule heating. The results include the temperature distribution as well as resistance-current curves that reproduce the observed shifted parabolic characteristics. Thin tunneling barriers can enhance the apparent Peltier cooling. The model agrees with the experimental results for wide multilayer pillars, but the giant effects observed for diameters <100 nm are still under discussion

Maximum Power of Thermally and Electrically Coupled Thermoelectric Generators

In a recent work, we have reported a study on the figure of merit of a thermoelectric system composed by thermoelectric generators connected electrically and thermally in different configurations. In this work, we are interested in analyzing the output power delivered by a thermoelectric system for different arrays of thermoelectric materials in each configuration. Our study shows the impact of the array of thermoelectric materials in the output power of the composite system. We evaluate numerically the corresponding maximum output power for each configuration and determine the optimum array and configuration for maximum power. We compare our results with other recently reported studies.

Performance of a Composite Thermoelectric Generator with Different Arrangements of SiGe, BiTe and PbTe under Different Configurations

In this study, we analyze the role of the thermoelectric (TE) properties, namely Seebeck coefficient α, thermal conductivity κ and electrical resistivity ρ, of three different materials in a composite thermoelectric generator (CTEG) under different configurations. The CTEG is composed of three thermoelectric modules (TEMs): (1) two TEMs thermally and electrically connected in series (SC); (2) two branches of TEMs thermally and electrically connected in parallel (PSC); and (3) three TEMs thermally and electrically connected in parallel (TEP). In general, each of the TEMs have different thermoelectric parameters, namely a Seebeck coefficient α, a thermal conductance K and an electrical resistance R. Following the framework proposed recently, we show the effect of: (1) the configuration; and (2) the arrangements of TE materials on the corresponding equivalent figure of merit Zeq and consequently on the maximum power Pmax and efficiency η of the CTEG. Firstly, we consider that the whole system is formed of the same thermoelectric material (α1,K1,R1 = α2,K2,R2 = α3,K3,R3) and, secondly, that the whole system is constituted by only two different thermoelectric materials Entropy 2015, 17 7388 (αi,Ki,Ri ≠ αj ,Kj ,Rj 6= αl,Kl,Rl, where i, j, l can be 1, 2 or 3). In this work, we propose arrangements of TEMs, which clearly have the advantage of a higher thermoelectric figure of merit value compared to a conventional thermoelectric module. A corollary about the Zeq-max for CTEG is obtained as a result of these considerations. We suggest an optimum configuration.

Size dependence of Peltier cooling in ferromagnet/Au nanopillars

We study Peltier cooling in current-perpendicular-to-plane multilayer nanopillars with diameters D varying from 60 to 430 nm and made from Au and various ferromagnets (FMs): Heusler compounds Co2MnSi and Co2FeSi (CFS) and conventional FM metals Fe and Co. We report an enhanced effective Peltier coefficient ΠCPP in resistance–current curves at small D (<120 nm). The maximum ΠCPP value of about 165 mV, found for the CFS/Au interface with D ~ 60 nm, is 24 times higher than the bulk Peltier coefficient Πbulk (~7 mV) and corresponds to a high cooling power of 43.6 MW/cm2.

Size Effects on the Entropy Production in Oscillatory Flow between Parallel Plates

The heat transfer problem of a zero-mean oscillatory flow of a Maxwell fluid between infinite parallel plates with boundary conditions of the third kind is considered. The local and global time-averaged entropy production are computed, and the consequences of convective cooling of the plates are also assessed. It is found that the global entropy production is a minimum for certain suitable combination of the physical parameters and a discrete set of values of the separation between the parallel plates. The transferred heat at the plates also shows minima in the same discrete set of values of the plates separation.