Hello all! Hope everyone is doing well, as we are past the halfway mark and these 10 weeks are coming to a close (it seemed not that long ago since we all met at Purdue, wasn't it?)
Anyhoo, for the past few weeks, I've just been getting myself more acquainted with the research material: thermoelectric generators (TEG's), their theory, performance, and applications. My project has now been geared towards improving and perfecting upon the system modeling that was done the previous year using MATLAB (had to dust off my notes and refresh on that). I've done lots of literature survey regarding modeling, including system, mathematical, and simulation modeling. I will be receiving aid by a graduate student and hopefully get something running in the next few days. If time permits, I will be experimentally testing a commercially available TEG and comparing it to the system model for validity.
Essentially, as noted in the previous blog post, the application for the TEG in fluid power systems will be implemented in Test Bed 6 (ankle foot orthosis) and for greater scales, Test Bed 3 (hydraulic hybrid passenger vehicle). TEG's will utilize the waste heat from the engines and converting it to usable electric energy to power on small devices (batteries, valves, control circuitry) due to their minimal power output.
The research has been exciting, as its new to me and its potential is remarkable. I was able to test out an evaluation kit that was used from last year's and the phenomenon of thermoelectricity was fascinating. As time is quickly running out, I will be working extra hard to at least complete the system modeling to gain knowledge about the system characteristics for future optimization.
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