Design and initial performance experiments of thermoelectric generator based on exhaust heat of car

In order to utilize the exhaust heat of car effectively and enhance its fuel economy, a thermoelectric generator was designed to realize power generation, from the initial experiments with different engine speed, the temperature influence factors of exhaust were analyzed, besides, the surface temperature distribution of heat collectors with different flow structure as well as the output performance of thermoelectric modules were tested. The experimental results prove that the shunt device in tail pipeline makes a large thermal resistance during the exhaust heat transmission; prolonging tail's transmission time and path appropriately can help raise the temperature of heat collector's surface and enhance the output performance of thermoelectric generator evidently; the temperature distribution of heat collector's surface with snake flow structure is much more uniform than that with cavity structure. According to the experimental results and analysis above, several improved measures were put forward, which will provide useful guidance to the further research in future.