Neeti Prasad

Research Process

 

• Motivation:

  • When I went to Bangalore, India over summer break, I realized how much we were dependent on power and heat.  During my trip, I faced multiple power cuts and noticed how dependent I was on electricity. During these power outages, we had to conserve the battery on our laptops and phones.

  • Widened use of wearable sensors, which need to be charged, lead me to explore body heat as a source of power.

 

• Problem:

  • Inspired by my motivation, I wanted to pursue the research project of powering wearable devices using TEGs.

  • With past experiments, I have seen that having a palm temperature of about 92 Fahrenheit produced about 35 millivolts and 20 milliwatts. 

  • Wearable Devices use about 3-5 volts and about 1 amp.

  • This is a much higher voltage and current than I am producing with one TEG. Connecting multiple TEGs in series and parallels would become a bulky setup.   

  • I had to create a system to minimize the size of this setup while meeting the "requirements" to power the wearable devices. 

 

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• Thermoelectric Generators (TEG) work because of the Seebeck Effect and the Peltier Effect.

  • Seebeck Effect: This is a phenomenon where a temperature difference between two dissimilar electrical conductors produces a voltage. This can only occur with a heat source on one side. Ex. Body Heat

  • ​Peltier Effect: The Peltier Effect states that if a voltage is applied across two dissimilar electrical conductors there will be a temperature difference at the surfaces of the electrical conductors.​​

 

• Current Solutions:    

  • Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG)

    • Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator is used in NASA space programs.

    • Purpose of RTG is to collect heat and convert to electricity in order to power spaceships to work in space where direct power isn't accessible.

    • RTG is made to work in atmospheres like Mars to power spaceship to extended periods of time. ​