Numerical study on thermoelectric-hydraulic performance of thermoelectric recuperator with wavy thermoelectric fins

A thermoelectric-hydraulic numerical model is built for thermoelectric recuperators with wavy and straight fins under large longitudinal temperature difference, and their performance is analyzed. It is found that the comprehensive performance of the wavy-fin thermoelectric recuperator is better than that of straight-fin thermoelectric recuperator. The maximum output powers of the two thermoelectric recuperators are 0.251 mW and 0.236 mW at inlet velocity of 1.7 m � s-1. When the ratio of wave height to wave length is 0.1, the maximum output power is 0.251 mW and output power per unit volume is 414.8 W � m-3. Taguchi method is used to optimize the wavy-fin thermoelectric recuperator. It is found that reducing channel width and plate thickness is beneficial to increase the output power and output power per unit volume for the wavy-fin thermoelectric recuperator. Increasing fin height and fin thickness is beneficial to the output power, but disadvantage to the output power per unit volume.