Impact of the Improvement of the Performance of Thermoelectric Modules on Its Efficiency

Improvement of the efficiency of thermoelectric modules requires the improvement of their performance. Thus, an optimisation method will be studied in this paper, as well as the analysis of the management of the operating conditions. By reversing the flow of hot and cold heat transfer fluids, we can reduce the temperature rise at the cold junctions and improve the performance. Water is the heat transfer fluid we have chosen for this study. The hot heat transfer fluid will flow in a channel to heat the hot junctions, and the cold heat transfer fluid will flow in a channel to cool the cold junctions. In the first case, the flows of the two heat transfer fluids are in the same direction. Subsequently, a second study will be carried out by opposing the flow direction of the heat transfer fluids. The results obtained show that by opposing the flow direction of the cold heat transfer fluid, we obtain a greater generated power than that obtained in the case of a flow in the same direction, which will allow us to have a better efficiency.