Modelling and Analysis of Thermoelectric Generation of Materials Using Matlab/Simulink

摘要

This paper presents several models and implementations on measuring the thermoelectric behaviour of an unknown material using Matlab/Simulink. The proposed models are designed using Simulink block libraries and can be linked to data obtained from an actual experimental setup. This model is unique, as it also contains an implementation that can be used as a laboratory experiment to estimate the thermal conductivity of the unknown material thus, making it easy to use for simulation, analysis and efficiency optimization of novel thermoelectric material. The model was tested on a natural graphite sample with a maximum output voltage of 0.74mV at a temperature difference of 25.3K. Thus, according to the collected data, an experimental mean value of 68W/m.K was observed for the thermal conductivity while the Seebeck coefficient had a mean value of -3.1µV/K. Hence, it is apparent that this model would be ideal for thermoelectric experimentation in a laboratory based environment especially as a user interface for students.