Date of Award

4-2014

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. HoSung Lee

Second Advisor

Dr. Christopher Cho

Third Advisor

Dr. Muralidhar Ghantasala

Keywords

Thermoelectric, performance, experiment, module, properties

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Designers often face the predicament of non-standardized forms of performance data provided by thermoelectric module manufacturers. Other than experimental means the only method to evaluate the performance of a product would be through analytical modeling using material properties that are usually undisclosed and unknown. This work studies the theoretical approach of obtaining such material properties using the maximum operating parameters reported by the manufacturers. These values are then analytically employed to evaluate the performances of these thermoelectric modules. Experimental means are also devised and carried out on these test samples to validate the integrity of the results. Three-way comparisons between the analytical, experimental and manufacturer-provided results indicate acceptable agreement.

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