Practical Implementation of Maximum Power Tracking Based Short-Current Pulse Method for Thermoelectric Generators Systems


Yahya K., Bilgin M. Z., Erfidan T.

JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS, vol.18, no.4, pp.1201-1210, 2018 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 18 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2018
  • Doi Number: 10.6113/jpe.2018.18.4.1201
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.1201-1210
  • Kocaeli University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The applications of thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have received a lot of attention both in terms of harvesting waste thermal energy and the need for multi-levels of power. It is critical to track the optimum electrical operating point using DC to DC converters controlled by a pulse that is generated through a maximum power point tracking algorithm (MPPT). In this paper, the hardware implementation of a short-current pulse algorithm has been demonstrated under steady stated and transient conditions. In addition, the MPPT algorithm has been proposed, which is one of the most effective and applicable algorithms for obtaining the maximum power point of TEGs. During this study, the proposed prototype has been validated both analytically and experimentally. It has also demonstrated successful performance, which highlights the claimed advantages of the proposed MPPT solution.