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Affiliation of Author(s):材料科学与技术学院

Title of Paper:Experimental prototype and simulation optimization of micro-radial milliwatt-power radioisotope thermoelectric generator

Journal:APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING

Key Words:Bismuth telluride Energy conversion COMSOL MEMS Radioisotope thermoelectric generator

Abstract:To satisfy the flexible power demand of the low power dissipation devices in the independent space electric system, a micro-radial milliwatt-power radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) was prepared and optimized in this research. The overall geometrical dimension of the RTG in the experiment was 65 mm (diameter) x 40 mm (height). The RTG, which was built and tested using simulated radioisotope source, eventually obtained an open-circuit voltage of 92.72 mV, an electric power of 149.0 mu W, and an energy conversion efficiency of 0.015% at the ambient temperature of 293.15 K and heat source power from 0.1 W to 1 W. On the basis of the structure used in the experiment, the length and crosssectional area of the thermoelectric leg and the number of thermoelectric modules were effectively optimized through the COMSOL Multiphysics. With the optimized length of 35 mm and cross-sectional area of 1.2 mm(2), the RTG with four thermoelectric modules achieved a 15.8 mW output power under 1 W heat source power. The maximum conversion efficiency calculated using COMSOL code increased to 1.58%. According to the optimized electrical output, the micro-radial RTG is expected to be a reliable space power supply for micro components and could satisfy the low power requirements of space missions. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ISSN No.:1359-4311

Translation or Not:no

Date of Publication:2017-10-01

Co-author:刘凯,liukai,许志恒,张铮嵘,袁子程,郭潇,靳占刚,Xiaobin Tang

Correspondence Author:Xiaobin Tang,Liu Yunpeng