MULTIPHYSICS MODELING OF SILICIDE-BASED THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS

The finite element method (FEM) represents an effective tool for solving coupled systems of partial differential equations, performing multiphysics simulation. The thermoelectric effect can be regarded as a multiphysics problem, since it involves different physical phenomena (heat transfer, Joule heating, transport of electric charge) and further conditions may need to be taken into account (heat flux between the thermoelectric material and the surrounding medium, elastic or inelastic deformations with mid-high temperature, etc.) In this work, finite element analyses are performed on uni-leg and multi-legs thermoelectric generators (TEG) with Mg2Si n-type and higher manganese silicide (HMS) p-type elements. Thermal and electrical contact resistances are taken into account and defined in the models as boundary features. The simulation is carried out in two steps: (i) evaluation of output power and conversion efficiency of uni-leg and multi-legs TEG; (ii) calculation of thermal tensile stresses in the thermoelectric elements.