Efficient Thermoelectric Power Conversion of Waste Heat for Deployed Forces.

摘要

The team of RTI International (RTI) and D-STAR Engineering (D-STAR) and our government partner US Army CERDEC (CERDEC) are pleased to provide SERDP this technical report for the program entitled Efficient Thermoelectric Power Conversion of Waste Heat for Deployed Forces (SI-1651) . This report will focus on the state of the waste heat conversion system at the end of the first proposed phase of the three-phase program and look forward to designs that could address issues encountered in the first phase. This report will first build an appropriate background based on data to show the evolution of the expected performance of the waste heat recovery system over phase 1. What will be shown are the changes in expected thermoelectric device efficiency and power output based on the actual available T from the specific 3kW TQG that the team has procured for this program. This analysis will culminate in an estimation of the maximum power output with current technology for thermoelectric conversion and heat exchangers. Following this analysis, the actual performance of the phase 1 system will be discussed including power output and system level integration issues encountered and the lessons learned in the program. Finally, this report will show initial designs for future work that could address many of the issues encountered in phase 1 that could be used for future success on such a program. Data was gathered on the generator set during the course of phase 1, which the team had to react to in the design and expectations for the heat recovery system. The most important piece of data was the lower available T that was measured which caused the team to lower expectations for efficiency of the thermoelectric (TE) convertor. Also, some changes in power output targets for each phase are requested after analysis of the generator exhaust heat content has shown that the ability to reach the original targets may not be possible.