Experimental investigation of heat pipe thermoelectric system under dynamic heat sources

Heat pipe thermoelectric systems utilize heat pipes to regulate the heat flux at the hot and cold ends of the thermoelectric module, thereby increasing overall generator thermoelectric conversion efficiency. Fluctuations in heat sources can impact the thermoelectric performance of a thermoelectric system. This study constructs an experimental system for heat pipe thermoelectric systems to explore its thermoelectric characteristics under dynamic heat sources. The results demonstrate that dynamic heat sources introduce fluctuations in the thermoelectric performance. However, once the system reaches dynamic equilibrium, the peak and valley output powers of the system remain relatively stable. When an average heat source power of 80 W is considered, the utilization of dynamic heat sources leads to a 15.30 % improvement in the average output power compared with that of steady-state heat sources. Furthermore, as the heat source cycling period increases to 360 min, the average thermoelectric efficiency reaches 2.71 %, and the output power can be improved by 122.43 %. Moreover, a higher fluctuation magnitude of heat source power correlates with a greater enhancement in the thermoelectric performance. The findings of this study offer valuable insights for achieving efficient operation in thermoelectric systems.