Experimental characterization of a commercial TEG device under mimicked operating conditions.

A long-standingzT= 1 barrier is still present in commercial thermoelectric generator devices (TEG) and is typically not overcome. Although it is possible to accept the current limits of such devices, the performances reported on the datasheets are frequently not obtainable when these thermoelectric devices are arranged for use in the actual operating conditions. Despite this, the current primary energy prices and ongoing climate change make their use attractive for many industrial sectors. An experimental investigation is here proposed on a single type of TEG available on the market; the temperature relationships of the electrical resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity in a thermostatic chamber were first determined. A piece of apparatus was assembled to mimic the operating conditions of the TEG device and verify its performance, but some critical issues were highlighted regarding the heat transfer and its ability to maintain an adequate contact pressure on the hot and cold sides of the module. In order to extend the recovery of waste heat to a non-excessively high temperature in the hot forging process, the maximum temperature attained on the hot side of the TEG in the performed experiments was not allowed to exceed 180 °C. With temperatures of around 160 °C on the hot side and just over 40 °C on the cold side, the conversion efficiency was close to 3%. Considering this conversion efficiency and the operating conditions, the estimated order of magnitude of the electricity that could be produced by recovering heat waste in the Italian hot forging sector could be in the region of some hundreds of MWh per year.

Mirror image technique for the thermal analysis in cryoablation: Experimental setup and validation.

The paper presents a set of experiments that were performed to characterize the freezing front propagation in water first, and in an agar-gel solution afterwards. The experimental setup made of Peltier devices, to emulate the cryogenic effect, and a copper cold finger, to mimic the cold probe interface, are described. We claim that by monitoring some temperatures at the generating cryodevice, several pieces of information can be derived through the cold interface to assess the outside thermodynamic changes. The employed technique, known as mirror image, allows determining the occurrence of the initial ice formation outside the cryo-probe and in the surrounding material, also with different magnitudes of the thermal contact resistance at the cold interface. For both water and agar the ice penetration was found to be non linear versus time, and proportional to the square root of time in the performed experiments. The ice drift velocity decreases according to its penetration inside the tested materials. At the beginning of ice formation, the measured drift velocities are approximately 0.11 mm/s and 0.06 mm/s for water and agar, respectively, and after the ice penetrates 2 mm, they become approximately 0.03 mm/s for both materials.

Experimental Investigation on Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Diffusivity of Ex-Vivo Bovine Liver from Room Temperature down to -60 °C.

Ex vivo animal tissues (e.g., bovine liver) as well as water-agar gel are commonly used to simulate both experimentally and numerically the response of human tissues to cryoablation treatments. Data on the low temperature thermal properties of bovine liver are difficult to find in the literature and very often are not provided for the whole temperature range of interest. This article presents the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity measurements performed on ex-vivo bovine liver samples using the transient plane source method. Regression coefficients are provided to determine these properties in different temperature ranges except for the phase transition during which no results were obtained, which suggests an ad hoc calorimetric analysis. A quick procedure is also suggested to determine the water mass fraction in the tissue. Moreover, an attempt to estimate the liver density in the frozen state using measurements performed solely at room temperature is also presented. The measured thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity values are compared with data reported in literature highlighting a spread up to 40%. Moreover, it emerges that water-agar gel usually made with 2% by weight of agar does not show the same thermal properties as the bovine liver.

Calorimetric analysis of ice onset temperature during cryoablation: a model approach to identify early predictors of effective applications.

Aim of the present study is to analyze thermal events occurring during cryoablation. Different bovine liver samples underwent freezing cycles at different cooling rate (from 0.0075 to 25 K/min). Ice onset temperature and specific latent heat capacity of the ice formation process were measured according to differential scanning calorimetry signals. A computational model of the thermal events occurring during cryoablation was compiled using Neumann's analytical solution. Latent heat (#1 = 139.8 ± 7.4 J/g, #2 = 147.8 ± 7.9 J/g, #3 = 159.0 ± 4.1 J/g) of all liver samples was independent of the ice onset temperature, but linearly dependent on the water content. Ice onset temperature was proportional to the logarithm of the cooling rate in the range 5 ÷ 25 K/min (#3a = - 12.2 °C, #3b = - 16.2 °C, #3c = - 6.6 °C at 5K/min; #3a = - 16.5 °C, #3b = - 19.3 °C, #3c = - 11.6 °C at 25 K/min). Ice onset temperature was associated with both the way in which the heat involved into the phase transition was delivered and with the thermal gradient inside the tissue. Ice onset temperature should be evaluated in the early phase of the ablation to tailor cryoenergy delivery. In order to obtain low ice trigger temperatures and consequent low ablation temperatures a high cooling rate is necessary.

Thermodynamic properties of atrial fibrillation cryoablation: a model-based approach to improve knowledge on energy delivery.

The objective of this study is to describe a suitable model of atrial fibrillation cryoablation thermodynamic properties. Three different thermal loads were applied to a cylindrical copper element simulating the cryoprobe, thermally coupled with a Peltier stack producing the freezing effect, and in contact with a bovine liver sample. Thermal events occurring inside the samples were measured using mirror image technique. Heat subtracted flux during ice formation and minimum temperature measured at probe-tissue interface were, respectively, 1.33 W cm-2 and -27.8°C for Sample#0, 1.88 W cm-2 and -35.6°C for Sample#1 and 1.82 W cm-2 and 1.44 W cm-2 before and after the ice trigger, respectively, and -29.3°C for Sample#2. Ice trigger temperature was around -8.5°C for Sample#0 and Sample#2, and -10.4°C for Sample#1. In all the investigated samples, ice front penetration was proportional to the square root of time and its velocity depended on the heat flux subtracted. The fraction of the useful energy spent for ice formation was less than 60% for Sample#0, and about 80% for Sample#1 and for Sample#2, before the reduction of the removed heat flux. Freezing time exceeding a cut-off, according to the heat subtracted flux, does not improve the procedure effectiveness and is detrimental to the surrounding tissues.

Apparatus to study the onset of free convection about vertical and inclined hot wires.

This article describes a methodology and an apparatus used to evaluate the onset time of free convection in hot-wire experiments. The evaluation of the onset time is useful to obtain a measurement interval that is suitable to estimate the thermal properties of a fluid. If a pure conduction regime is present, the hot-wire temperature increment versus time is a straight line in a semilog plot, whereas the convection effect induces a deviation from this trend. An algorithm based on the F test is proposed to evaluate the onset time of free convection. The experimental facility has the particular feature of allowing an easy change of the hot-wire inclination angle up to 118.3 mrad. The wire is kept in a tilted position by a permanent horseshoe magnet, and the tilting angle from the vertical is measured by a theodolite. Some testing results using water are discussed for vertical and inclined wires. A good agreement between the experimental onset times and the theoretical ones is found in the case of a vertical wire.

The Peltier driven frequency domain approach in thermal analysis.

The merits of Frequency Domain analysis as a tool for thermal system characterization are discussed, and the complex thermal impedance approach is illustrated. Pure AC thermal flux generation with negligible DC component is possible with a Peltier device, differently from other existing methods in which a significant DC component is intrinsically attached to the generated AC flux. Such technique is named here Peltier Driven Frequency Domain (PDFD). As a necessary prerequisite, a novel one-dimensional analytical model for an asymmetrically loaded Peltier device is developed, which is general enough to be useful in most practical situations as a design tool for measurement systems and as a key for the interpretation of experimental results. Impedance analysis is possible with Peltier devices by the inbuilt Seebeck effect differential thermometer, and is used in the paper for an experimental validation of the analytical model. Suggestions are then given for possible applications of PDFD, including the determination of thermal properties of materials.

Frequency domain analysis of spreading-constriction thermal impedance.

Spreading-constriction effects are analyzed in the frequency domain. The existence of a half-pole altering the steady state solution at high frequencies is pointed out. Application to the case of thermoelectric devices allows direct comparison with experimental data because thermal quantities can be measured as electrical signals at the very spot where spreading takes place. Good agreement with theory is shown here for a thermoelectric device in which the particular constriction geometry enhances its effect, making easily observable the difference between frequency domain and the steady state approaches.

The elusive half-pole in the frequency domain transfer function of Peltier thermoelectric devices.

A half-pole can be expected in the transfer function of a Peltier device because proportionality between the diffusion length and the square root of the diffusion time is intrinsic in the diffusion equation. The resulting -1∕2 bilogarithmic slope (10 dB∕dec) is, however, easily masked by the thermal time constant of the load, which makes it elusive. The goal of this work is to identify the arrangements which can reveal and make usable the half-pole, because the latter can be instrumental in a servo control to increase the open-loop gain without risking instability. The diffusion equation was solved in a sine wave regime for a one-dimensional model of a Peltier device. The Laplace transform method was used, and the periodic solution was obtained using Cauchy's theorem and the method of residues. The -1∕2 slope of the half-pole appeared observable in a frequency range which can be several decades wide, depending on details of device configuration and considered position within. Amplitude and phase of temperature and heat flux in various spots are discussed with emphasis on the physical meaning, and a comparison is provided with solutions yielded by the lumped model, which cannot show the half-pole. An experimental check of the theoretical approach and analysis was made taking into account the deviations from one-dimensionality occurring in a real Peltier device. Given a constant amplitude sine wave injected current, the quadrature component of the Seebeck voltage across the whole series of junctions was identified as the most easily measurable quantity related to the thermal response of the device. Experimental results for the latter turned out in good agreement with analytical solutions.

An accurate new method to measure the dimensionless figure of merit of thermoelectric devices based on the complex impedance porcupine diagram.

The heat diffusion related f(-1/2) slow decay in the frequency domain transfer function of thermoelectric devices introduces a bias in figure of merit measurement methods that do not take it into account. The bias can range from less than 1% to more than 20% depending on the device. Harman type methods are not immune. Neither is the simple single measurement procedure proposed here on the basis of a complex thermal impedance analysis of the device, but in this case the supporting theory allows evaluating and correcting for the bias with documented accuracy. To this aim, both a theoretical approach based on a priori knowledge of the device and an experimental one based on theory guided measurements are possible and are described in the paper. Typical residual Type B uncertainties after correction can be below 10% of the bias.