Behavior of thermoelectric generators exposed to transient heat sources

This paper describes the power generation behavior of a thermoelectric generator (TEG) exposed to a transient heat source on the hot side and natural convection on the cold side. The simulation situation is typical in energy harvesting applications. Modeling thermoelectric generators (TEGs) under these conditions is complicated compared to thermoelectric coolers because of the non-linearities and the unknown electric currents in a closed-loop circuit. A transient thermoelectric model that includes Seebeck, Peltier, Thomson, and Joule effects is solved using finite-difference techniques and the power generated from a TEG is simulated. Using open-circuit experiments were used to establish key parameters governing the thermal behavior and thermoelectric coupling. Experiments with closed-circuits and load resistors were used to validate the model. The results show that inclusion of Thomson effect plays a significant role in accurately predicting the power generated by the device.