An online simulator for thermoelectric cooling and

power generation
Je-Hyeong Bahk, Megan Youngs, Kazuaki Yazawa,
Ali Shakouri
Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University,
West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
shakouri@purdue.edu
Abstract We present an online simulator that can be used to
teach the principles of thermoelectric energy conversion, and
analyze the detailed performance of Peltier coolers or
thermoelectric power generators with simple user interfaces [1].
The simulation tool is implemented on nanoHUB.org, so it can be
run on any web interface without the need to install commercial
software. The simulation tool solves the heat balance equations at
the top and bottom sides of the thermoelectric device using 1D
thermal network model and the electric circuit model to analyze
the steady-state temperatures of the device and the
thermoelectric energy conversion efficiency. Both cooling and
power generation modes can be solved upon users input. Using
this simulator, users are able to optimize the performance of a
thermoelectric device with a variety of different design
parameters such as the device dimensions and material
properties. In particular, this simulator can be very useful to
teach the importance of the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, of
the material used on the performance of the device. This
simulation is also instructive to show that as material properties
improve Carnot limit can be achieved at negligible output power,
while efficiency at maximum output power converges to CurzonAhlborn limit.
Keywords online simulator; thermoelectric; cooling; power
generation;

I.

INTRODUCTION

As the world strives to solve the energy problem, there has

been a growing interest in strengthening education in
renewable energy technologies and related fields [2]. Since
most of the energy technologies are interdisciplinary,
conventional approaches to the higher-level teaching of such
subjects may not be applicable. For example, the efficiencies of
state-of-the-art energy conversion systems are determined not
only by the materials used, but also by the design of deviceand system-level electrical circuits connected to it. For this, an
interdisciplinary education encompassing a broad range of
science and engineering fields is necessary to meet the everrising demand of energy technology engineers and researchers.
An online simulator is a very useful method for energy
technology education. First, it can provide students an easy
access to the complicated energy systems in a virtual
environment. Second, the operation principles or performances
of the systems can be easily understood and evaluated for
undergraduate students without directly solving the difficult
mathematical equations. Third, online simulators can be

Oxana Pantchenko
Baskin School of Engineering, University of California,
Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
oxana@soe.ucsc.edu

directly used in real research activities for graduate students

where the system optimization and evaluation in terms of
various design parameters for the system are crucial.
One of the great examples of an energy system that can
take full advantages of an online simulator for education
purposes is thermoelectric (TE) energy conversion system.
Recently thermoelectric energy conversion has received much
attention for waste heat recovery and for micro-chip cooling
applications [3]. More than 55% of energy generated in the
society is wasted in the form of heat so thermoelectrics could
play an important role in future energy landscape [4]. Analysis
of a thermoelectric device is complicated because one needs to
solve the coupled thermal and electric transport equations
taking into account heat flow and electrical energy supplied to
a load. An online simulator for TE devices may be very useful
for students to have an easy access to devices that couple
electron and heat transport and energy conversion applications.
In this paper, we present an online simulator that can be
used to teach the principles of thermoelectric energy
conversion, and analyze the performance of thermoelectric
devices. The simulation tool can be used on any web interface
without the need to install MATLAB or other commercial
software, as it is implemented on nanoHUB.org with simple
and easy user interface. We are currently developing several
course modules at UC Santa Cruz and Purdue University that
utilize this online simulator to teach undergraduate students the
principles of thermoelectric energy conversion devices. Lastly,
we will also show the methodology to propose student project
using the online TE simulator as well as the expected outcomes
and evaluation plan.
II.

SIMULATION OF THERMOELECTRIC DEVICES

A. Principles and modeling of thermoelectric devices

The underlying physics of thermoelectric cooling is Peltier
effect. When a current flows through an interface between two
dissimilar materials, thermal energy is absorbed or dissipated
depending on the direction of current flow in order to
compensate the difference in thermal energy transported by
electrons in the two materials. The thermal energy Q
transported by a current I in a material having a Seebeck
coefficient S at absolute temperature T is given by Q=STI. Thus,
the absorbed or dissipated heat at the interface between
material 1 and material 2 by the Peltier effect becomes the

This work was supported by the Center for Energy Efficient Materials,
one of the Energy Frontier Research Centers of The Office of Science, U.S.
Department of Energy (J.-H. B., K.Y. and A.S.), NSF TUES grant 1238565
(O. P. and A.S.), and Purdue SURF program (M.Y.).
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difference of the transported thermal energies or Q1-Q2=(S1S2)TI. In addition, there are other thermal transport effects:
Joule heating and thermal conduction. The Joule heating is I2R
in a material with electrical resistance R. This heat is equally
divided and propagated to the two ends of the material. When a
temperature gradient is created through a material, heat
conduction Qcond occurs from the hot side to cold side
proportional to the temperature difference T, so that Qcond =
T/, where is the thermal resistance of the material.
Fig.1(a) shows a typical structure of a thin film TE device
fabricated on a conducting substrate. A top metal contact is
deposited on top surface of the thin film TE element, and a
ground contact is deposited at the bottom of the substrate, so
that both electrical current and heat flow vertically through the
whole structure. In our simulator, we solve the heat balance
equations obtained at the top surface of the TE element and at
the interface between the TE element and the substrate from
the 1D thermal network model shown in Fig. 1(b). The heat
balance equation depicts that the Peltier heating/cooling, the
Joule heating, and the heat conduction are all in balance.
It is important to include the heat and current 3D spreading
effect in the substrate, because the substrate is much larger than
the TE device on it. A closed-form thermal spreading
resistance in a substrate is adopted from Lee et al. [5] with
assumption of an infinitely large substrate and a perfect heat
sink underneath it. The electrical spreading resistance is
obtained from Vashaee et al. [6], which is based on ANSYS
finite element simulation.
B. Simulation method and boundary conditions
A thermoelectric device works as both a cooler and a power
generator. In the cooling mode, a current is injected into the TE
device. Two boundary conditions can be simulated: one is that
the cooling power Q1 is known, from which T1 and T2 are
calculated by solving the coupled heat balance equations. The
other boundary condition is that the top surface temperature T1
is known, from which T2 and the cooling power Q1 are
calculated. Then the coefficient of performance (COP) is
obtained by

COP =

Q1
,
W

(1)

where W is the work done by the electrical current to achieve

the cooling performance given by
W = IVOC + I 2 Ri .

(2)

where Voc is the open-circuit voltage induced internally in the

device by the Seebeck effect, Voc=STE(T1-T2)+Ssub(T2-Tamb), and
Ri is the total internal resistance of the device, Ri=Rc+RTE+Rsub.
In the power generation mode, a heat energy Q1 is injected
into the device from the top, which creates a temperature
gradient across the device and generate a voltage by the
Seebeck effect. A load resistance RL is connected to the device,
so that a current flows through the load to generate a power
output, Pout= I2RL. The current is obtained by an electrical
circuit model, in which the open-circuit Seebeck voltage source
has an internal resistance and is connected to the external load.

Fig. 1 (a) Schematic of a thin film TE device on a substrate and (b)

the corresponding 1D thermal network model

There are two boundary conditions for the power

generation mode as well. One is that the heat input Q1 is known,
and then we calculate T1, T2, and I by solving the coupled heat
balance equations. The other option is that T1 is known, and we
calculate Q1, T2, and I. Then the thermoelectric energy
conversion efficiency is obtained by

Pout
.
Q1

(3)

In both the cooling and power generation modes, users can

select an option that there is no substrate.
A practical TE module consists of multiple n-type and ptype TE elements that are connected electrically in series, and
thermally in parallel [3]. The online simulator presented in this
paper has also the capabilities of simulating multi-element
modules having both n- and p-type elements. Users are asked
to input the dimensions and material properties of the n- and ptype elements as well as the number of the elements.
C.

Implementation on nanoHUB.org
We have implemented the simulator on nanoHUB.org.
NanoHUB provides an easy and simple Java-based graphical
user interface. We wrote the simulator core in MATLAB script,
and integrated the code with the user interface of nanoHUB
using Rappture toolkit [7]. Users can access and run the
program by simply visiting the website. Upon the start of the
program, an introduction page is shown up to give users a brief
overview and instructions on how to use the simulator as
shown in Fig. 2(a).

Then, users can select from a pull-down menu a simulation

option in either cooling or power generation mode for single
element simulation or multi-element module simulation. In the
second page of the simulator (Fig. 2(b)), users are asked to
choose an independent variable, for which all the outputs are
calculated and plotted as its function, and the range of the
independent variable to simulate, and enter material properties
and dimensions of the TE elements. Then simulation is
performed when the simulate button is pressed by user, and the
resulting output data are plotted as a function of the
independent variable as shown in Fig. 2(c) as an example.

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undergraduate classes in physics and electrical engineering

departments are good places to use this simulator, in which
students do not have to use commercial engineering software
such as MATLAB or Mathematica, but simply go on the
website and run the simulator. Also, this simulator can be
useful as a supplementary software in conjunction with handson thermoelectric energy conversion experiments in
introduction to renewable energy classes [8].
Students should have basic knowledge of classical physics
on thermal transport and thermodynamics prior to using this
simulator. Understanding of basic electrical circuits is also
necessary. The simulator is very versatile and it allows students
to study the limit of thermoelectric power generation as the
material properties are improved. Carnot limit (1- Tcold/Thot) can
be achieved at negligible output power, while efficiency at
maximum output power converges to Curzon-Ahlborn limit (1Tcold/Thot) [9].

Fig. 2 (a) Introduction page of the online TE device simulator on

nanoHUB.org, (b) material properties and simulation option page,
and (c) an example of simulation results (net cooling vs. current) for
various sizes of TE devices.

III.

PRACTICES, EVALUATION AND FUTURE WORK

This online simulator is built and designed for use in classes

where students are taught the principles of TE devices and the
detailed performance analyses of the system. For that purpose,
we offer a variety of independent variables for users to choose
from in this simulator, so that students can do performance
optimization and comparison of TE devices in terms of the
selected independent variables in a simple and easy way. For
example, a user can choose the load resistance as an
independent variable in the power generation mode, and find
out that the power output is maximized when the load
resistance is equal to the internal resistance of the device, the
so-called load-matching condition. For another example, the
material properties such as the Seebeck coefficient S, electrical
conductivity , and thermal conductivity can be chosen as an
independent variable for a user to learn how the thermoelectric
energy conversion efficiency is determined as a function of
those properties. This way, students can learn the importance
of the figure or merit ZT=S2T/ of the material for enhancing
the efficiency of the device.
This simulator is suitable for undergraduate-level students
who are beginning to learn the principles of thermal transport
physics and thermoelectric energy conversion, as well as for
graduate students who are doing research on their own design
of TE devices and systems. In particular, students from
materials and chemical engineering departments who grow or
synthesize their new TE materials can benefit from using this
simulator as they want to predict realistic performance of the
future devices that utilize their materials. Additionally, the

A suggested method of evaluating what students have

learned from the simulator is to give each student a
questionnaire before and after the use of simulator, which
contains a set of questions relevant to the subject of the class.
Also, students can take an on-site quiz in a computer lab with
the internet access at the end of the academic term, where they
run the simulator in a real time and solve the problems related
to the performance of TE devices. The simulator provides users
functionalities that export the simulation results into text or MS
Excel files. Students can generate plots with this simulator.
The online simulator has been installed for public use on
nanoHUB.org [1]. It will be constantly upgraded. We are
planning to use this simulator in classes at UC Santa Cruz and
Purdue University and continue to upgrade it based on the
feedback received back from students, researchers and
instructors.
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Our online simulator can be found at https://nanohub.org/tools/thermo.

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