Work

Convergent Annular Thermoelectric Generator with Fish-Fin-like Heat Exchange

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This paper proposes a fish-fin-like fins convergent annular thermoelectric generator (FF-CATEG) device. An annular contraction-type thermal conduction ceramic component is designed along the axial gradient direction, with fish-fin-like fins and thermocouple annular arrays introduced on the inner and outer walls of the ceramic, respectively. Therefore, the directional transport through the cross-coupling of fluid kinetic energy and thermal energy is achieved, significantly improving the thermoelectric conversion efficiency of the proposed structure. Experimental results indicate that a maximum net output power of 6.17 W is achieved using FF-CATEG with the pipe contraction angle of 3.5° and fin coverage of 13.44%. With the temperature difference of 320 K and waste heat fluid velocity of 14.5 m/s, the thermoelectric conversion efficiency can be increased to 3.97%, which is a 39.3% improvement compared to the finless one. This study presents a new approach for recovering waste heat from turbulent flows.

Source: Energies

DOI: 10.3390/en19030762