Contents

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Introduction to Project. Engine. Engine operation. Thermoelectric Effect. Basic on which project is based. Theory of the project. Thomson effect. Figure of merit. Types of thermocouple.

10. Advantages and Disadvantages.

What new to do with waste heat in Automobiles? If you have a lot of heat, then you can do what Power plants do you can use the heat to generate steam, and use the steam to spin a turbine. The turbine can drive a generator, which produces electricity. This setup is very common, but it requires a fair amount of equipment and space. If you would like to generate electricity from heat in a simple way that has no moving parts, this usually involves thermocouples. Thermocouples take advantage of an electrical effect that occurs at junctions between different metals. For example, take two iron wires and one copper wire. Twist one end of the copper wire and one end of one of the iron wires together. Do the same with the other end of the copper wire and the other iron wire. If you heat one of the twisted junctions (perhaps with a match) and attach the two free ends to a volt meter, you will be able to measure a voltage. Similarly, if you hook the two iron wires to a battery one junction will get hot and the other will get cold.

ENGINE
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combuston of fuel and an oxidizer (typically air) occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. This exothermic reaction creates gases at high tempreture and, pressure which are permitted to expand. Internal combustion engines are defined by the useful work that is performed by the expanding hot gases acting directly to cause the movement of solid parts of the engine. The term Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) is often used to refer to an engine in which combustion is intermittent, such as a Wankel engine or a reciprocating piston engine in which there is controlled movement of pistons, cranks, cams, or rods. However, continuous combustion engines such as jet engines, most rockets, and many gas turbines are also classified as types of internal combustion engines. This contrasts with external combustion engines such as steam engines and stirling engines that use a separate combustion chamber to heat a separate working fluid which then in turn does work, for example, by moving a piston or a turbine.

A huge number of different designs for internal combustion engines exist, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Although they're used for many different purposes, internal combustion engines particularly see use in mobile applications such as cars, aircraft, and even handheld applications: all where their ability to use an energy-dense fuel (especiallyfossil fuels) to deliver a high power-to-weight ratio is particularly advantageous.

Applications
The motion of internal combustion engines is usually performed by the controlled movement of pistons, cranks, rods, rotors, or even the entire engine itself. Internal combustion engines are most commonly used for mobile propulsion in vehicles and portable machinery. In mobile equipment, internal combustion is advantageous since it can provide high power-to-weight ratios together with excellent fuelenergy density. Generally using fossil fuel(mainly petroleum), these engines have appeared in transport in almost all vehicles (automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, boats, and in a wide variety of aircrafts and locomotives). These vehicles, when they are not hybrid, are called AllPetroleum Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (APICEVs) or All Fossil Fuel Internal Combustion Vehicles (AFFICEVs).

Internal combustion engines appear in the form of gas turbines as well where a very high power is required, such as injet aircraft, helicoptores, and large ships. They are also frequently used for electric generator and by industry.

Operation

Four-stroke cycle (or Otto cycle) 1.Intake 2.compression 3.power 4. exhaust

Basic process
Internal combustion engines have 4 basic steps:

Intake are emplaced in the

Combustible mixtures combustion chamber

Compression

The mixtures are placed under pressure

Combustion/Expansion almost invariably a few systems involve

The mixture is burnt, deflagration, although a

detonation. The hot mixture is expanded, pressing on and moving parts of the engine and performing useful work.

Exhaust

The cooled combustion products are exhausted Many engines overlap these steps in time, jet engines do all steps simultaneously at different parts of the engines. Some internal combustion engines have extra steps.

Combustion
All internal combustion engines depend on the exothermic chemical process ofcombustion: the reaction of afuel, typically with oxygen from the airalthough other oxidizers such as nitrous oxide may be employed. The combustion process typically results in the production of a great quantity of heat, as well as the production of steam and carbon dioxide and other chemicals at very high temperature; the temperature reached is determined by the chemical make up of the fuel and oxidisers . The most common modern fuels are made up of hydrocarbons and are derived mostly fromfossil fuels. Because of this, vehicles that uses this energy are called All-Fossil Fuel Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (AFFICEVs). Fossil fuels include dieselfuel, gasoline and petrolieum gas, and the rarer use ofpropane. Except for the fuel delivery components, most internal combustion engines that are designed for gasoline

use can run on natural gas or liquefied petroleum gases without major modifications. Liquid and gaseousbiofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel (a form of diesel fuel that is produced from crops that yield triglycerides such as soybean oil), can also be used. Some engines with appropriate modifications can also run on hydrogengas. All internal combustion engines must achieve ignition in their cylinders to create combustion. Typically engines use either a spark ignition(SI)method or a compression ignition(CI) system. In the past, other methods using hot tubes or flames have been used. Gasoline Ignition Process Gasoline engine ignition systems generally rely on a combination of a lead-acid battery and an induction coil to provide a high-voltage electrical spark to ignite the air-fuel mix in the engine's cylinders. This battery is recharged during operation using an electricity-generating device such as an alternator or generator driven by the engine. Gasoline engines take in a mixture of air and gasoline and compress it to not more than 185 psi, then use a spark plug to ignite the mixture when it is compressed by the piston head in each cylinder. Diesel Ignition Process Diesel engines and HCCI engines, rely solely on heat and pressure created by the engine in its

compression process for ignition. The compression level that occurs is usually twice or more than a gasoline engine. Diesel engines will take in air only, and shortly before peak compression, a small quantity of diesel fuel is sprayed into the cylinder via a fuel injector that allows the fuel to instantly ignite. HCCI type engines will take in both air

and fuel but continue to rely on an unaided autocombustion process, due to higher pressures and heat. This is also why diesel and HCCI engines are more susceptible to cold-starting issues, although they will run just as well in cold weather once started. Light duty diesel engines in automobiles and light trucks employ glow plugs that pre-heat the combustion chamber just before starting to reduce no-start conditions in cold weather. Most diesels also have a battery and charging system; nevertheless, this system is secondary and is added by manufacturers as a luxury for the ease of starting, turning fuel on and off (which can also be done via a switch or mechanical apparatus), and for running auxiliary electrical components and accessories. Most new engines rely on electrical and electronic control systems that also control the combustion process to increase efficiency and reduce emissions.

Measures of engine performance

Engine types vary greatly in a number of different ways:

Energy effeciency fuel/propellant consumption (brake specific fuel consumtion for shaft engines, thrust specific fuel consumption for jet engines) power to weight ratio thrust to weight ratio torque curves(for shaft engines)

Energy Efficiency
Once ignited and burnt, the combustion products hot gaseshave more available thermal energy than the original compressed fuel-air mixture (which had higherchemical energy). The available energy is manifested as high tempreture and pressure that can be translated into work by the engine. In a reciprocating engine, the highpressure gases inside the cylinders drive the engine's pistons. Once the available energy has been removed, the remaining hot gases are vented (often by opening a valve or exposing the exhaust outlet) and this allows the piston to return to its previous position (top dead center, or TDC). The piston can then proceed to the next phase of its cycle, which varies

between engines. Any heat that isn't translated into work is normally considered a waste product and is removed from the engine either by an air or liquid cooling system. Engine efficiency can be discussed in a number of ways but it usually involves a comparison of the total chemical energy in the fuels, and the useful energy abstracted from the fuels in the form of kinetic energy. The most fundamental and abstract discussion of engine efficiency is the thermodynamic limit for abstracting energy from the fuel defined by a thermodynamic cycle. The most comprehensive is the empirical fuel economy of the total engine system for accomplishing a desired task; for example, the miles per gallon accumulated. Internal combustion engines are primarily heat engines and as such the phenomenon that limits their efficiency is described by

thermodynamic cycles. None of these cycles exceed the limit defined by the Carnot cycle which states that the overall efficiency is dictated by the difference between the lower and upper operating temperatures of the engine. A terrestrial engine is usually and fundamentally limited by the upper thermal stability derived from the material used to make up the engine. All metals and alloys eventually melt or decompose and there is

significant researching into ceramic materials that can be made with higher thermal stabilities and desirable structural properties. Higher thermal stability allows for greater temperature difference between the lower and upper operating temperaturesthus greater thermodynamic efficiency. The thermodynamic limits assume that the engine is operating in ideal conditions. A frictionless world, ideal gases, perfect insulators, and operation at infinite time. The real world is substantially more complex and all the complexities reduce the efficiency. In addition, real engines run best at specific loads and rates as described by their power curve. For example, a car cruising on a highway is usually operating significantly below its ideal load, because the engine is designed for the higher loads desired for rapid acceleration. The applications of engines are used as contributed drag on the total system reducing overall efficiency, such as wind resistance designs for vehicles. These and many other losses result in an engines' real-world fuel economy that is usually measured in the units of miles per gallon (or kilometers per liter) for automobiles. The miles in, "MPG" represents a meaningful amount of work and the volume of hydrocarbon implies a standard energy content. Most steel engines have a thermodynamic limit of 37%. Even when aided with turbochargers and stock efficiency aids, most engines retain an average efficiency of about 18%-20%.

There are many inventions concerned with increasing the efficiency of ICEngines. In general, practical engines are always compromised by trade-offs between different properties such as efficiency, weight, power, heat, response, exhaust emissions, or noise. Sometimes economy also plays a role in not only in the cost of manufacturing the engine itself, but also manufacturing and distributing the fuel. Increasing the engines' efficiency brings better fuel economy but only if the fuel cost per energy content is the same.

Seebeck effect
The See beck effect is the conversion of temperature differences directly into electricity. Seebeck discovered that a compass needle would be deflected when a closed loop was formed of two metals joined in two places with a temperature difference between the junctions. This is because the metals respond differently to the temperature difference, which creates a current loop, which produces a magnetic field. Seebeck, however, at this time did not

recognize there was an electric current involved, so he called the phenomenon the thermomagnetic effect, thinking that the two metals became magnetically polarized by the temperature gradient. The Danish physicist Hans Christia rsted played a vital role in explaining and conceiving the term "thermoelectricity".

The effect is that a voltage, the thermoelectric EMF, is created in the presence of a temperature difference between two different metals or semiconductors. This causes a continuous current in the conductors if they form a complete loop. The voltage created is of the order of several microvolts per kelvin difference. One such combination, copper-constantan, has a Seebeck coefficient of 41 microvolts per kelvin at room temperature.

In the circuit:

(which can be in several different configurations and be governed by the same equations), the voltage developed can be derived from:

SA and SB are the Seebeck coefficients (also called thermoelectric power or thermopower) of the metals A and B as a function of temperature, and T1 and T2 are the temperatures of the two junctions. The Seebeck coefficients

are non-linear as a function of temperature, and depend on the

conductors' absolute temperature, material, and molecular structure. If the Seebeck coefficients are effectively constant for the measured temperature range, the above formula can be approximated as: The Seebeck effect is commonly used in a device called a thermocouple (because it is made from a coupling or junction of materials, usually metals) to measure a temperature difference directly or to measure an absolute temperature by setting one end to a known temperature. Several thermocouples when connected in series are called a thermopile, which is sometimes constructed in order to increase the output voltage since the voltage induced over each individual couple is small. This is also the principle at work behind thermal diodes and thermoelectric generators (such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators or RTGs) which are used for creating power from heat differentials.

The Seebeck effect is due to two effects: charge carrier diffusion and phonon drag (described below). If both connections are held at the same temperature, but one connection is periodically opened and closed, an AC voltage is measured, which is also temperature dependent.

This application of the Kelvin probe is sometimes used to argue that the underlying physics only needs one junction. And this effect is still visible if the wires only come close, but do not touch, thus no diffusion is needed.

Thermopower
The thermopower, or thermoelectric power, or Seebeck coefficient of a material measure the magnitude of an induced thermoelectric voltage in response to a temperature difference across that material. The thermopower has units of (V / K), though in practice it

is more common to use microvolts per kelvin. Values in the hundreds of V/K, negative or positive, are typical of good thermoelectric materials. The term thermopower is a misnomer since it measures the voltage or electric field induced in response to a temperature difference, not the electric power. An applied temperature difference causes charged carriers in the material, whether they are electrons or holes, to diffuse from the hot side to the cold side, similar to a classical gas that expands when heated. Mobile charged carriers migrating to the cold side leave behind their oppositely charged and immobile nuclei at the hot side thus giving rise to a thermoelectric voltage (thermoelectric refers to the fact that the voltage is created by a temperature difference). Since a separation of charges also creates an electric potential, the buildup of

charged carriers onto the cold side eventually ceases at some maximum value since there exists an equal amount of charged carriers drifting back to the hot side as a result of the electric field at equilibrium. Only an increase in the temperature difference can resume a buildup of more charge carriers on the cold side and thus lead to an increase in the thermoelectric voltage. Incidentally the thermopower also measures the entropy per charge carrier in the material. To be more specific, the partial molar electronic heat capacity is said to equal the absolute thermoelectric power multiplied by the negative of Faraday's constant.

The thermopower of a material, represented by S (or sometimes by ), depends on the material's temperature and crystal structure. Typically metals have small thermopowers because most have half-filled bands. Electrons (negative charges) and holes (positive charges) both contribute to the induced

thermoelectric voltage thus canceling each other's contribution to that voltage and making it small. In contrast, semiconductors can be doped with an excess amount of electrons or holes and thus can have large positive or negative values of the thermopower depending on the charge of the excess carriers. The sign of the thermopower can determine which charged carriers dominate the electric transport in both metals and semiconductors.

If the temperature difference T between the two ends of a material is small, then the thermopower of a material is defined (approximately) as:

and a thermoelectric voltage V is seen at the terminals. This can also be written in relation to the electric field E and the temperature

gradient , by the approximate equation:

In practice one rarely measures the absolute thermopower of the material of interest. This is because electrodes attached to a voltmeter must be placed onto the material in order to measure the thermoelectric voltage. The temperature gradient then also typically induces a thermoelectric voltage across one leg of the measurement electrodes. Therefore the measured thermopower includes a contribution from the thermopower of the material of interest and the material of the measurement electrodes. The measured thermopower is then a contribution from both and can be written as:

Superconductors have zero thermopower since the charged carriers produce no entropy. This allows a direct measurement of the absolute thermopower of the material of interest, since it is the thermopower of the entire thermocouple as well. In addition, a measurement of the Thomson coefficient, , of a material can also yield the thermopower through the relation: The thermopower is an important material parameter that determines the efficiency of a thermoelectric material. A larger induced thermoelectric voltage for a given temperature gradient will lead to a larger efficiency. Ideally one would want very large thermopower values since only a small amount of heat is then necessary to create a large voltage. This voltage can then be used to provide power.

Charge-carrier diffusion

Charge carriers in the materials (electrons in metals, electrons and holes in semiconductors, ions in ionic conductors) will diffuse when one end of a conductor is at a different temperature than the other. Hot carriers diffuse from the hot end to the cold end, since there is a lower density of hot carriers at the cold end of the conductor. Cold carriers diffuse from the cold end to the hot end for the same reason.

If the conductor were left to reach thermodynamic equilibrium, this process would result in heat being distributed evenly throughout the conductor. The movement of heat (in the form of hot charge carriers) from one end to the other is called a heat current. As charge carriers are moving, it is also an electrical current. In a system where both ends are kept at a constant temperature difference (a constant heat current from one end to

the other), there is a constant diffusion of carriers. If the rate of diffusion of hot and cold carriers in opposite directions were equal, there would be no net change in charge. However, the diffusing charges are scattered by impurities, imperfections, and lattice vibrations (phonons). If the scattering is energy dependent, the hot and cold carriers will diffuse at different rates. This creates a higher density of carriers at one end of the material, and the distance between the positive and negative charges produces a potential difference; an electrostatic voltage. This electric field, however, opposes the uneven scattering of carriers, and an equilibrium is reached where the net number of carriers diffusing in one direction is canceled by the net number of carriers moving in the opposite direction from the electrostatic field. This means the thermopower of a material depends greatly on impurities, imperfections, and structural changes (which often vary themselves with temperature

andzelectric field), and the thermopower of a material is a collection of many different effects. Early thermocouples were metallic, but many more recently developed thermoelectric devices are made from alternating p-type and n-type semiconductor elements connected by metallic interconnects as pictured in the figures below. Semiconductor junctions are especially common in power generation devices, while metallic junctions are more common in temperature measurement. Charge flows through the n-type element, crosses a metallic interconnect, and passes into the p-type element. If a power source is provided, the thermoelectric device may act as a cooler, as in the figure to the left below. This is the Peltier effect, described in the next section. Electrons in the n-type element will move opposite the direction of current and holes in the p-type element will move in the direction

of current, both removing heat from one side of the device. If a heat source is provided, the thermoelectric device may function as a power generator, as in the figure to the right below. The heat source will drive electrons in the n-type element toward the cooler region, thus creating a current through the circuit. Holes in the p-type element will then flow in the direction of the current. The current can then be used to power a load, thus converting the thermal energy into electrical energy.

Much research in thermoelectric materials has focused on increasing the Seebeck coefficient and reducing the thermal conductivity, especially by manipulating the nanostructure of the materials Peltier effect This effect bears the name of Jean-Charles Peltier (a french physicist) who discovered in 1834, the calorific effect of an electrical current at the junction of two different metals. When a current I is made to flow through the circuit, heat is evolved at the upper junction (at T2), and absorbed at the lower junction (at T1). The Peltier heat absorbed by the lower junction per unit time, is equal to

Where is the Peltier coefficient AB of the entire thermocouple, and A and B are the coefficients of each material. P-type silicon

typically has a positive Peltier coefficient (though not above ~550 K), and n-type silicon is typically negative, as the names suggest.

The Peltier coefficients represent how much heat current is carried per unit charge through a given material. Since charge current must be continuous across a junction, the associated heat flow will develop a discontinuity if A and B are different. This causes a non-zero divergence at the junction and so heat must accumulate or deplete there, depending on the sign of the current. Another way to understand how this effect could cool a junction is to note that when electrons flow from a region of high density to a region of low density, they expand (as with an ideal gas) and cool. The conductors are attempting to return to the electron equilibrium that existed before the current was applied by absorbing energy at one connector and releasing it at the other. The individual couples can be connected in series to enhance the effect. An interesting consequence of this effect is that the direction of heat transfer is controlled by the polarity of the current; reversing the polarity will change the direction of transfer and thus the sign of the heat absorbed/evolved. A Peltier cooler/heater or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other. Peltier cooling is also called thermo-electric cooling (TEC).

Thomson effect
The Thomson effect was predicted and subsequently experimentally observed by William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) in 1851. It describes the heating or cooling of a current-carrying conductor with a temperature gradient. Any current-carrying conductor (except for a superconductor), with a temperature difference between two points, will either absorb or emit heat, depending on the material. If a current density J is passed through a homogeneous conductor, heat production per unit volume is:

where is the resistivity of the material dT/dx is the temperature gradient along the wire is the Thomson coefficient.

The first term J is simply the Joule heating, which is not reversible. The second term is the Thomson heat, which changes sign when J changes direction. In metals such as zinc and copper, which have a hotter end at a higher potential and a cooler end at a lower potential, when current moves from the hotter end to the colder end, it is moving from a high

to a low potential, so there is an evolution of heat. This is called the positive Thomson effect. In metals such as cobalt, nickel, and iron, which have a cooler end at a higher potential and a hotter end at a lower potential, when current moves from the hotter end to the colder end, it is moving from a low to a high potential, there is an absorption of heat. This is called the negative Thomson effect. The Thomson coefficient is unique among the three main thermoelectric coefficients because it is the only thermoelectric coefficient directly measurable for individual materials. The Peltier and Seebeck coefficients can only be determined for pairs of materials. Thus, there is no direct experimental

method to determine an absolute Seebeck coefficient (i.e. thermopower) or absolute Peltier coefficient for an individual material. However, as mentioned elsewhere in this article there are two equations, the Thomson relations, also known as the Kelvin relations (see below), relating the three thermoelectric coefficients. Therefore, only one can be considered unique. If the Thomson coefficient of a material is measured over a wide temperature range, including temperatures close to zero, one can then integrate the Thomson coefficient over the temperature range using the Kelvin relations to determine the absolute (i.e. single-material) values for the Peltier and Seebeck coefficients. In principle, this need only be done for one material, since all other values can be determined by measuring pairwise Seebeck coefficients in thermocouples containing the reference material and then adding back the absolute thermoelecric power (thermopower) of the reference material.

It is commonly asserted that lead has a zero Thomson effect. While it is true that the thermoelectric coefficients of lead are small, they are in general non-zero. The Thomson coefficient of lead has been measured over a wide temperature

range and has been integrated to calculate the absolute thermoelectric power (thermopower) of lead as a function of temperature. Unlike lead, the thermoelectric coefficients of all known superconductors are zero.

The Thomson relationships

The Seebeck effect is actually a combination of the Peltier and Thomson effects. In fact, in 1854 Thomson found two relationships, now called the Thomson or Kelvin relationships, between the corresponding coefficients. The absolute temperature T, the Peltier coefficient and Seebeck coefficient S are related by the first Thomson relation which predicted the Thomson effect before it was actually formalized. These are related to the Thomson coefficient by the second Thomson relation

Thomson's theoretical treatment of thermoelectricity is remarkable in the fact that it is probably the first attempt to develop a reasonable theory of irreversible thermodynamics (nonequilibrium thermodynamics). This occurred at about the time that Clausius, Thomson, and others

were introducing and refining the concept of entropy.

Figure of merit
The figure of merit for thermoelectric devices is defined as , where is the electrical conductivity, is the thermal conductivity, and S is the Seebeck coefficient or thermopower (conventionally in V/K). This is more commonly expressed as the dimensionless figure of merit ZT by multiplying it with the average temperature ((T2 + T1) / 2). Greater values of ZT indicate greater thermodynamic efficiency, subject to certain provisions, particularly the requirement that the two materials of the couple have similar Z values. ZT is therefore a very convenient figure for comparing the potential efficiency of devices using different materials. Values of ZT=1 are considered good, and values of at least the 34 range are considered to be essential for thermoelectrics to compete with mechanical generation and

refrigeration in efficiency. To date, the best reported ZT values have been in the 23 range.

thermocouples
In electrical engineering and industry, thermocouples are a widely used type of temperature sensor and can also be used as a means to convert thermal potential difference into electric potential difference. They are cheap and interchangeable, have standard connectors, and can measure a wide range of temperatures. The main limitation is accuracy; System errors of less than one Kelvin (K) can be difficult to achieve.[ [

Principle of operations
In 1821, the GermanEstonian physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered that when any conductor (such as a metal) is subjected to a thermal gradient, it will generate a voltage. This is now known as the thermoelectric effect or Seebeck effect. Any attempt to measure this voltage necessarily involves connecting another conductor to the "hot" end. This additional conductor will then also experience the temperature gradient, and develop a voltage of its own which will oppose the original. Fortunately, the magnitude of the effect depends on the metal in use. Using a dissimilar metal to complete the circuit creates a circuit in which the two legs generate different voltages, leaving a small difference in voltage available for measurement. That difference increases with temperature, and can typically be between 1 and 70 microvolts per degree Celsius (V/C) for the modern range of available metal combinations. Certain combinations have become popular as industry standards, driven by cost, availability, convenience, melting point, chemical properties,

stability, and output. This coupling of two metals gives the thermocouple its name. Thermocouples measure the temperature difference between two points, not absolute temperature. In traditional applications, one of the junctionsthe cold junctionwas maintained at a known (reference) temperature, while the other end was attached to a probe. Having available a known temperature cold junction, while useful for laboratory calibrations, is simply not convenient for most directly connected indicating and control instruments. They incorporate into their circuits an artificial cold junction using some other thermally sensitive device, such as a thermistor or diode, to measure the temperature of the input connections at the instrument, with special care being taken to minimize any temperature gradient between terminals. Hence, the voltage from a known cold junction can be simulated, and the appropriate correction applied. This is known as cold junction compensation. Additionally, a device can perform cold junction compensation by computation. It can translate device voltages to temperatures by either of two methods. It can use values from look-up tables or approximate using polynomial interpolation.

A thermocouple can produce current, which means it can be used to drive some processes directly, without the need for extra circuitry and power sources. For example, the power from a thermocouple can activate a valve when a temperature difference arises. The electric power generated by a thermocouple is a conversion of the heat energy that one must continuously supply to the hot side of the thermocouple to maintain the electric potential. The flow of heat is necessary because the current flowing through the thermocouple

tends to cause the hot side to cool down and the cold side to heat up (the Peltier effect). Thermocouples can be connected in series with each other to form a thermopile, where all the hot junctions are exposed to the higher temperature and all the cold junctions to a lower temperature. The voltages of the individual thermocouples add up, allowing for a larger voltage and increased power output, thus increasing the sensitivity of the instrumentation. With the radioactive decay of transuranic elements providing a heat source this arrangement has been used to power spacecraft on missions too far from the Sun to utilize solar power.

Voltagetemperature relationship
The relationship between the temperature difference and the output voltage of a thermocouple is nonlinear and is approximated by polynomial:

The coefficients an are given for N from zero to between five and nine. To achieve accurate measurements the equation is usually implemented in a digital controller or stored in a look-up table.[4] Some older devices use analog filters.

Types Of Thermocouple

Type E The Type E thermocouple is suitable for use at temperatures up to 900C (1650F) in a vacuum, inert, mildly oxidizing or reducing atmosphere. At

cryogenic temperatures, the thermocouple is not subject to corrosion. This thermocouple has the highest EMF output per degree of all the commonly used thermocouples. Type J The Type J may be used, exposed or unexposed, where there is a deficiency of free oxygen. For cleanliness and longer life, a protecting tube is recommended. Since JP (iron) wire will oxidize rapidly at temperatures over 540C (1000F), it is recommended that larger gauge wires be used to compensate. Maximum recommended operating temperature is 760C (1400F). Type K Due to its reliability and accuracy, Type K is used extensively at temperatures up to 1260C (2300F). It's good practice to protect this type of thermocouple with a suitable metal or ceramic protecting tube, especially in reducing atmospheres. In oxidizing atmospheres, such as electric furnaces, tube protection is not always necessary when other conditions are suitable; however, it is recommended for cleanliness and general mechanical protection. Type K will generally outlast Type J because the JP (iron) wire rapidly oxidizes, especially at higher temperatures.

Type N This nickel-based thermocouple alloy is used primarily at high temperatures up to 1260C (2300F). While not a direct replacement for Type K, Type N provides better resistance to oxidation at high temperatures and longer life in applications where sulfur is present. Type T This thermocouple can be used in either oxidizing or reducing atmospheres, though for longer life a protecting tube is recommended. Because of its stability at lower temperatures, this is a superior thermocouple for a wide variety of applications in low and cryogenic temperatures. It's recommended operating range is -200 to 350C (-330 to 660F), but it can be used to -269C (-452F) (boiling helium). Types S, R and B Maximum recommended operating temperature for Type S or R is 1450C (2640F); Type B is recommended for use at as high as 1700C (3100F). These thermocouples are easily contaminated. Reducing atmospheres are particularly damaging to the calibration. Noble metal thermocouples should always be protected with a gas-tight ceramic tube, a secondary tube of alumina and a silicon carbide or metal outer tube as conditions require.

W-5 Percent Re/W-26 Percent Re (Type C*) This refractory metal thermocouple may be used at temperatures up to 2315C (4200F). Because it has no resistance to oxidation, its use is restricted to vacuum, hydrogen or inert atmospheres.

Thermopile
A thermopile is an electronic device that converts thermal energy into electrical energy. It is composed of thermocouples connected usually in sfries, or less commonly in parllel. Thermopiles do not measure the absolute temperature, but generate an output voltage proportional to a local tempreture difference or temperature gradient. Thermopiles are the key component of the infrared thermometers that are widely used by medical professionals to measure body temperature via the ear. They are also used widely in heat flux sensors and gas burner safety controls. The output of a thermopile is usually in the range of tens or hundreds of millivolts. As well as increasing the signal level, the device

may be used to provide spatial temperature averaging.

Basics of minor :
Above discussed topis as : Thermopile Thermocouple and the principles of Seeback and Peltier are the basic concept of the minor project.

Minor project: This project is the basic of utilising the heat and colness of the engine or of the vehicle, so thet a thermocouple can be made ythus producing the electricity Now the question arises how to genrate electricity? Electricity can be produced using thermopile making a thermocouple.genuinely maximum temp. of the vehicle lies in the engine but cant be used at all, so then utilising the heat of the exhoust manifold which is round 1500`c and then the internal minimum temp. of the vehicle is round 70`c that is of radiating fluid in the radiator. Now making a junction in this hot and cold part of the vehoicle as shown in the dia. This junction is made by the us4e of the thermopile by using a thihck copper wire which is to carry the lightest ev of current. This finally contributes to the thermocouple which genrates electricity acting as a thermogenrator.and finally this electric

current is shifted to battery in order to get it charged . When the battery gets charged then it comes to reduce the load on the engine and rather vehicle also.this is done by reducing the size of the alternator which derives motion from the engine. Thus increasing ingines thermal efficiency and also the fuel efficiency.

Advantages and Disadvantages: Advantages:

1. Increase in the efficiency of the engine. 2. Decrease in load appearance on engine. 3. Decrease automobile. in gross weight of an

4. Effective electronic and electrical system of an automobile.

5. Increase in fuel efficiency of the engine.

Disadvantages:
1. Difficulties in utilizing low volts of charge generated. 2. Proper metallic connections are required. 3. Complex connection of wires involved in engine