Abstract: To maximize the temperature difference of automobile exhaust thermoelectric generator(AETEG), based on the same hot source and different loads of engine, the open circuit voltage and maximum power of AETEG with unitary, singlecolumn and independent cold source structure were experimented, the effect of those different cold source structures on the output performance of AETEG was compared and analyzed. The results indicate that the output performance can be greatly enhanced with the optimized cold source structure, the effect of independent cold source structure is the most superior, singlecolumn cold source structure takes the second place, while the unitary cold source structure is the worst, the contact between the cold side of single thermoelectric module and its corresponding cold source is tighter, and the temperature difference is much larger when cold source structure is of independent miniaturization.  

Key words: automobile exhaust thermoelectric generator, cold source structure, output performance, thermoelectric module