A Study of Sensing Heat Flow through Thermal Walls by Using Thermoelectric Module

Demands on heat flow detection at a plane wall via a thermoelectric module have drawn researchers’ attention to quantitative understanding in order to properly implement the thermoelectric module in thermal engineering practices. Basic mathematical models of both heat transfer through a plane wall and thermoelectric effects are numerically solved to represent genuine behaviors of heat flow detection by mounting a thermoelectric module at a plane wall. The heat transfer through the plane wall is expected to be detected. It is intriguing from simulation results that the heat rejected at the plane wall is identical to the heat absorbed by the thermoelectric module when the area of the plane wall is the same as that of the thermoelectric module. Furthermore, both the area sizes of the plane walls and the convective heat transfer coefficients at the wall influence amount of the heat absorbed by the thermoelectric module. Those observational data are modeled for development of sensing heat flow through a plane wall by a thermoelectric module in practical uses.