Installation services of laboratory equipment

Tender description

At the University of Cambridge there is a large research programme on energy research which is co-ordinated through the Energy@Cambridge initiative (www.energy.cam.ac.uk). A particular focus is on novel functional materials for energy applications. Cambridge is a partner in the recently announced Sir Henry Royce Institute, which will be a national materials research institute for the UK. The Cambridge hub is leading a research programme on advanced materials for energy efficient ICT. As part of this initiative we will be building up a focussed research programme on thermoelectric generators for harvesting waste heat and converting it into useful electricity. This programme will involve integration of novel thermoelectric materials into thermoelectric generators (TEGs) and it will require the accurate evaluation of TEG performance under well controlled temperature and heat flow conditions. Our intention is to acquire a thermoelectric module measurement system that will allow accurate evaluation of the performance of thermoelectric energy harvesting devices under application-representative conditions. The efficiency of a thermoelectric converter in converting a flow of waste heat associated with a temperature gradient into useful electrical power is determined by the materials figure-of-merit parameter ZT = - 2 T / κ, where is the electrical conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient, T the temperature and κ the thermal conductivity of the materials across which the electromotive force is generated. These individual quantities can be determined from separate physical measurements, which allows us to estimate ZT. However, this can lead to significant errors as the individual measurements are often not performed on the same sample or sample configuration and idealised estimates of TEG efficiency based on determination of ZT may not represent accurately the thermoelectric heat-to-electricity power conversion efficiency achievable in a TEG. For this programme we intend to acquire a test system that will allow direct and accurate measurements of the power generated by a TEG module when a given temperature difference is applied to it and of the associated heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency.