Investigation of thermoelectric SiC ceramics for energy harvesting applications on supersonic vehicles leading–edges

Utilizing thermoelectric technology to aerodynamic heat harvesting on the leading-edge is worth noticing in the thermal protection systems. In this paper, a nose-tip model in a supersonic flow field is developed to predict the thermoelectric performance of SiC ceramics structures. The generation performance is numerically investigated in terms of the computational fluid dynamics and the thermal conduction theory. The output power and energy efficiency of the nose-tip model are obtained with Mach number varying from 2·5–4·5. The generated power reaches 1·708 W/m2at a temperature difference of 757 K at M = 4·5. With respect to the Thomson effect, the output power decreases rapidly. However, larger output power and energy efficiency would be obtained with the increase of Mach number, with or without considering the Thomson heat. Moreover, under the higher Mach numbers, larger range of output current value is available.