DefinePK

Abstract

A thermoelectric generator has drawn significant attention for heat recovery from an engine exhaust, which contributes for enhancing the fuel economy of the engine. A heat exchanger is an important element of the heat recovery system such as a thermoelectric generator. The thermoelectric generator performance is affected by the heat exchanger. So, it is needed to improve the average surface temperature, temperature uniformity, and back pressure of the heat exchanger. In this study, different types of internal structures were used and compared under different operating conditions. Taguchi method was used to find the design of the experiment. Several experiments have been conducted based on orthogonal arrays L25 with two parameters and five levels. Analysis of variance was implemented for finding the significant and parameter contribution. Finally, the optimum operating condition of the surface temperature, temperature uniformity, and back pressure have been obtained. The predicted and actual values of all the parameters are in good agreement. The optimum combination of the engine load and heat exchanger has been obtained by using Grey relational analysis.