Research And Manufacture Of Thermoelectric Generator

The semiconductor thermoelectric generator is a power unit, which can converts heat into electricity by the semiconductor thermoelectric device. Due to its small size, light weight, high reliability, high energy density and long life, the semiconductor thermoelectric generator it can be competent some special works which some ordinary power sources are unable to be. According to the semiconductor thermoelectric generator's structure, the internal heat unit, the semiconductor thermoelectric device and other assembled with a heat radiation out shell has researched and the trial manufactured separately in this dissertation.The interior heat unit divides into the Radioisotope Heat Unit (RHU) and the electric-heat unit. Plutonium-238 (Pu-238) is widely used as heat sources because of its lowγradiation, reasonable energy density and long half-life time. In this paper, radiation characteristics of Pu-238 are discussed. Then in order to design an 1 Watt Pu-238 heat unit. Simultaneously electric-heat unit has carried on the simulation test.The semiconductor thermoelectric device converts heat directly to the electric power without moving parts based on the Seebeck effect. It is the core part of the semiconductor thermoelectric generator, and lays the foundation for the generator's design and manufacture. In this dissertation, the semiconductor thermoelectricity device has been analyzed by some theories, and then series of tests including open voltage, I-V curve, internal resistance, output power, coefficient of the semiconductor thermoelectric device are carried out. Conclusions about the performance of the semiconductor thermoelectric device are presented after the test and analysis.The heat insulation unit and the heat radiator are the important units which would provide the difference in temperature for the semiconductor thermoelectric device. It lays the foundation for improving the thermoelectric effective. In this dissertation, series of performance tests have been carried on after theoretic analysis separately.Based on the research work above, we come to the design and trial-manufacture of the semiconductor thermoelectric generator. Finally, a simulative thermoelectric generator and RTG have been designed and trial manufactured. After the assembling work, a series of tests is taken on the simulative thermoelectric generator. Test results show that, the output voltage of trial-generator can reach 773mV at most, resulting in a 88mV output voltage. Test result satisfies the aim of the design.