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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Thermoelectric Transport In Disordered Organic And Inorganic Semiconductors, Meenakshi Upadhyaya
Thermoelectric Transport In Disordered Organic And Inorganic Semiconductors, Meenakshi Upadhyaya
Doctoral Dissertations
The need for alternative energy sources has led to extensive research on optimizing the conversion efficiency of thermoelectric (TE) materials. TE efficiency is governed by figure-of-merit (ZT) and it has been an enormously challenging task to increase ZT > 1 despite decades of research due to the interdependence of material properties. Most doped inorganic semiconductors have a high electrical conductivity and moderate Seebeck coefficient, but ZT is still limited by their high lattice thermal conductivity. One approach to address this problem is to decrease thermal conductivity by means of alloying and nanostructuring, another is to consider materials with an inherently low …
Exploring A Platinum Nanocatalytic Microcombustion-Thermoelectric Coupled Device, Dylan Moore Mcnally
Exploring A Platinum Nanocatalytic Microcombustion-Thermoelectric Coupled Device, Dylan Moore Mcnally
Theses and Dissertations
This work aimed to create a first-generation power device for eventual application to portable electronics. A platinum nanoparticle catalytic substrate was employed in a microcombustion-thermoelectric coupled (MTC) device for the purpose of chemical-to-electrical energy conversion. Multiple microcombustion reactors were designed, fabricated, and investigated. Most importantly, the reactor configuration was designed to accommodate thermoelectric generators (TEGs) for power production. Temperature studies with catalytic combustion of methanol-air fuel mixtures were used to evaluate the thermal power generation performance of each reactor. The final reactor design enabled ignition at room temperature with the ability to achieve repeat catalytic cycles upon subsequent exposure to …
Driver Cooling System, Joseph Fatin Bolous, Jake Donald Deboer, Alvin Theodore Lau
Driver Cooling System, Joseph Fatin Bolous, Jake Donald Deboer, Alvin Theodore Lau
Mechanical Engineering
This document provides our Final Design Review (FDR) for the Driver Cooling System Project. It contains our background research, which includes current product research, technical research, and information on our sponsor’s needs as a customer as well our manufacturing process, test results, and final design. We created a problem statement to define the scope of the project, discuss sponsor and consumer needs and wants, and technical specifications. After brainstorming, we ultimately selected a thermoelectric cooling system (TEC) after presenting our Preliminary Design Report and Critical Design Report. We built the final prototype, as can be seen in the manufacturing plan, …
Design And Construction Of A Chemical Engineering (Cheme) Car Using Thermoelectrics, Timothy Barnhill, Sara Davino, Spencer Faltin, Lauryn Jamison, Christina Papadimitrio, Mccall Rogers
Design And Construction Of A Chemical Engineering (Cheme) Car Using Thermoelectrics, Timothy Barnhill, Sara Davino, Spencer Faltin, Lauryn Jamison, Christina Papadimitrio, Mccall Rogers
Senior Theses
Six chemical engineering undergraduates at the University of South Carolina formed a team to compete in the 2014 AIChE Chem-E-Car competition at the Southern Regional Student Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in March. In the Chem-E-Car competition, students must design and build a vehicle powered by an unconventional form of chemical energy to carry a specified weight over a given distance (1). The group used knowledge gained through undergraduate study to construct a small-scale vehicle that is powered by a set of thermoelectric generators utilizing a heat gradient between boiling water and an ethanol-dry ice mixture (2). An iodine …
Analytical Performance Evaluation Of Thermoelectric Modules Using Effective Material Properties, Sean Lwe Leslie Weera
Analytical Performance Evaluation Of Thermoelectric Modules Using Effective Material Properties, Sean Lwe Leslie Weera
Masters Theses
Designers often face the predicament of non-standardized forms of performance data provided by thermoelectric module manufacturers. Other than experimental means the only method to evaluate the performance of a product would be through analytical modeling using material properties that are usually undisclosed and unknown. This work studies the theoretical approach of obtaining such material properties using the maximum operating parameters reported by the manufacturers. These values are then analytically employed to evaluate the performances of these thermoelectric modules. Experimental means are also devised and carried out on these test samples to validate the integrity of the results. Three-way comparisons between …