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Experimental Heat Transfer
A Journal of Thermal Energy Generation, Transport, Storage, and Conversion
Volume 34, 2021 - Issue 3
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Research Article

An experimental study on the thermal behavior of aluminum thermoelectric system integrated with engine exhaust

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Pages 201-216 | Received 26 Dec 2019, Accepted 12 Feb 2020, Published online: 21 Feb 2020
 

ABSTRACT

The current study presents the energy and exergy analysis of a thermoelectric waste heat recovery system of an automobile using an aluminum-based heat exchanger. The experiment was conducted on a 4 cylinder direct injection diesel engine by varying the load with constant engine speed. Effect of second law efficiency, availability, entropy generation along with output current, and power of the thermoelectric system on various engine loads have been considered and were compared. Furthermore, the CFD analysis of the heat exchanger of a waste heat recovery system has been considered to evaluate the optimal thickness at the inlet conditions of exhaust gas. On the basis of CFD analysis, the optimal thickness of 3 mm for the heat exchanger has been used for waste heat recovery. The maximum entropy generated by the designed waste heat recovery system is found to be significantly less than the entropy generated by the engine. However, the availability of the exhaust gas is 81.8% higher than the availability of coolant. The study revealed that significant energy is lost through the exhaust, and employing higher load with constant engine speed enhances the scope of waste heat recovery.

Nomenclature

Symbol=

Nomenclature

Qin=

Input energy to the engine per unit time

Qshaft=

Power available at the shaft of engine per unit time

Qcw=

Energy taken away from engine by cooling water per unit time

Qe=

Energy taken away as exhaust per unit time

Qun=

Energy unaccounted per unit time

Ain=

Input availability to the engine per unit time

Ashaft=

Availability at the shaft of engine per unit time

Acw=

Availability taken away from engine by cooling water per unit time

Ae=

Availability in exhaust per unit time

Ad=

Destructed availability

Qi,hx=

Input exhaust energy to the heat exchanger per unit time

QTEG=

Energy produced by TEG per unit time

Qco=

Energy taken by coolant from the cold side of TEG per unit time

Qo,hx=

Exhaust energy from the heat exchanger per unit time

Ai,hx=

Availability of exhaust inlet to heat exchanger per unit time

ATEG=

Availability as power produced by TEG per unit time

Ao,hx=

Exhaust availability from the heat exchanger per unit time

Pamb=

Ambient pressure

Pe=

Exhaust gas pressure

Tamb=

Ambient temperature

Cp,co, Cp,cw=

Specific heat capacity of the cooling coolant

Specific heat capacity of cooling water

Cp,ex=

Specific heat capacity of exhaust gas

Tamb=

Ambient temperature

Tcw,o=

Temperature of cooling water outlet from the engine

Tcw,i=

Temperature of cooling water inlet to the engine

Tex,ih=

Temperature of exhaust gas from engine inlet to EHX

Tex,oh=

Temperature of exhaust gas outlet from EHX

Tco,o=

Temperature of coolant outlet from cold side of a thermoelectric generator

Tco,i=

Temperature of coolant inlet to the cold side of a thermoelectric generator

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