Case Studies in Thermal Engineering· 2026Q1
Evaluating the effectiveness of multi-layer fin structure on the performance and temperature uniformity of a thermoelectric generator system on a stationary diesel engine
- 1citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
A multi-layer fin heat exchanger design for thermoelectric generators (TEGs) on diesel engines improves temperature uniformity by up to 90.43% and net output power by 6.93%, mitigating the typical trade-off between these metrics.
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Key points
- A multi-layer fin heat exchanger design was investigated for TEG systems on stationary diesel engines.
- Optimizing fin reduction (r f) and last-layer fin number (N f,last) improves longitudinal temperature uniformity.
- Specific configurations achieved up to 90.43% improvement in thermal uniformity and 6.93% in net output power.
- The multi-layer fin structure offers an ~18% uniformity improvement without power loss, outperforming prior designs.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Thermal uniformity and output power are two critical yet often conflicting performance characteristics of thermoelectric generator systems. This study proposes a multi-layer fin hot side heat exchanger to improve thermal uniformity while minimizing associated output power trade-offs. The influences of the fin-reduction step, r f , and the fin number in the last layer, N f,last , are investigated using a hybrid model combining computational fluid dynamics and thermal resistance calculations. The findings show that the multi-layer fin configuration reduces longitudinal heat conduction, intensifying temperature concentration in the front region of the heat exchanger. Increasing the r f suppresses this effect by redistributing the exhaust velocity and heat transfer area, enhancing the longitudinal temperature uniformity at the cost of reduced power. Meanwhile, increasing N f,last amplifies these effects, thereby improving the trade-off. The net output power improvement can reach 6.93%, while the improvement in thermal uniformity can be up to 90.43%. The cases N f,last = 34 & r f = 4 and N f,last = 34 & r f = 5 improve temperature uniformity while maintaining or increasing net output power. The proposed structure can improve the thermal uniformity by approximately 18% without sacrificing net output power and maintains a lower power reduction by 5–8% than the previously investigated trapezoidal fin and inclined muffler wall structures at comparable thermal uniformity levels. These findings demonstrate that the multi-layer fin structure is an effective approach for mitigating the trade-off between output power and thermal uniformity, contributing to the development of low-cost and efficient thermoelectric generator systems for internal combustion engines.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Materials Chemistry
Materials ChemistryMaterials Science