Advanced Soldier Thermoelectric Power System for Power Generation from Battlefield Heat Sources

摘要

The U.S. military uses large amounts of fuel during deployments and battlefield operations. This project sought to develop a lightweight, small form-factor, soldier-portable advanced thermoelectric (TE) system prototype to recover and convert waste heat from various deployed military equipment (i.e., diesel generators/engines, incinerators, vehicles, and potentially mobile kitchens), with the ultimate purpose of producing power for soldier battery charging, advanced capacitor charging, and other battlefield power applications. The technical approach employed microchannel technology, a unique power panel approach to heat exchange/TE system integration, and newly- characterized LAST (lead-antimony-silvertelluride) and LASTT (lead-antimony- silver-tin-telluride) TE materials segmented with bismuth telluride TE materials in designing a segmented-element TE power module and system. This project researched system integration challenges of designing a compact TE system prototype consisting of alternating layers of thin, microchannel heat exchangers (hot and cold) sandwiching thin, segmented-element TE power generators. The TE properties, structurally properties, and thermal fatigue behavior of hot-pressed and sintered (HPS) LAST and LASTT materials were developed and characterized, such that the first segmented-element TE modules using LAST/LASTT materials were fabricated and tested. The LASTT p-type materials exhibited ZT values of 1.0 at 700 K, whereas the goal for these p- type materials was about 1.2 at 700 K. The p-type LASTT power factors, although improved during the project to about 17 W/cm-K2 at 600-700 K , fell short of the expectations of 20-22 W/cm-K2 at 600-700 K. Further work is needed to increase p-type LASTT power factors. The LAST n-type materials exhibited ZT values of 1.0 at 700 K compared to a goal of 1.5 at 700 K.