Temperature Seebeck effect

The primary thermoelectric phenomena considered in practical devices are the reversible Seebeck, Peltier, and, to a lesser extent, Thomson effects, and the irreversible Eourier conduction and Joule heating. The Seebeck effect causes a voltage to appear between the ends of a conductor in a temperature gradient. The Seebeck coefficient, L, is given by... 

Thermocouples are primarily based on the Seebeck effect In an open circuit, consisting of two wires of different materials joined together at one end, an electromotive force (voltage) is generated between the free wire ends when subject to a temperature gradient. Because the voltage is dependent on the temperature difference between the wires (measurement) junction and the free (reference) ends, the system can be used for temperature measurement. Before modern electronic developments, a real reference temperature, for example, a water-ice bath, was used for the reference end of the thermocouple circuit. This is not necessary today, as the reference can be obtained electronically. Thermocouple material pairs, their temperature-electromotive forces, and tolerances are standardized. The standards are close to each other but not identical. The most common base-metal pairs are iron-constantan (type J), chomel-alumel (type K), and copper-constantan (type T). Noble-metal thermocouples (types S, R, and B) are made of platinum and rhodium in different mixing ratios. 

Seebeck used antimony and copper wires and found the current to be affected by the measuring instrument (ammeter). But, he also found that the voltage generated (EMF) was directly proportional to the difference in temperature of the two junctions. Peltier, in 1834, then demonstrated that if a current was induced in the circuit of 7.1.3., it generated heat at the junctions. In other words, the SEEBECK EFFECT was found to be reversible. Further work led to the development of the thermocouple, which today remains the primary method for measurement of temperature. Nowadays, we know that the SEEBECK EFFECT arises because of a difference in the electronic band structure of the two metals at the junction. This is illustrated as follows ... 

The production of a current of electricity by heating a junction formed by two dissimilar metals. For temperature measurement the metals are usually in the form of wires see Thermocouple) and the circuit has two junctions, the hot junction which is exposed to the temperature to be measured and the cold junction which is kept at a standard temperature. The thermo-electric effect is also termed the Seebeck Effect after its discoverer. 

The Seebeck Effect The production of an electromotive force in a thermocouple under conditions of zero electric current. Thermoelectric power is the change in voltage at a thermocouple as a function of temperature. 

When the two ends of a material containing mobile charge carriers, holes or electrons, are held at different temperatures, a voltage is produced, a phenomenon called the Seebeck effect (Fig. 1.11). The Seebeck coefficient of a material, a, is defined as the ratio of the electric potential produced when no current flows to the temperature... 

Figure 1.11 Seebeck effect. A sample with one end maintained at a high-temperature Tfr and the other at a low-temperature Tc will develop a potential difference A.

During operation the voltage developed at the thermopile output is proportional to the thermoelectric power of each of the two different materials and to the temperature difference between the warm and cold junction (Seebeck effect). 

The determination of the heat flow relies on the so-called Seebeck effect. An electric potential, known as thermoelectric force and represented by E, is observed when two wires of different metals are joined at both ends and these junctions are subjected to dilferent temperatures, 7j and T2 (figure 9.1a). Several thermocouples can be associated, forming a thermopile (figure 9.1b). For small temperature differences, the thermoelectric force generated by the thermopile is proportional to 7j - T2 and to the number of thermocouples of the pile (>/) ... 

The reverse of the Seebeck effect is called the Peltier effect and results from flowing an electric current through the circuits of figure 9.1. If the junctions are initially at the same temperature, a temperature gradient will be developed for instance, in the case of figure 9.1a, one of the junctions will cool and the other will warm. Associated with this electric current there will also be a Joule (resistive) effect, so that the net power (P) produced at each junction is given by... 

The thermocouple utilizes the Seebeck effect. Copper and constantan are the two metals most commonly used and produce an essentially linear curve of voltage against temperature. One of the junctions must either be kept at a constant temperature or have its temperature measured separately (by using a sensitive thermistor) so that the temperature at the sensing junction can be calculated according to the potential produced. Each metal can be made into fine wires that come into contact at their ends so that a very small device can be made. 

Thermocouples operate on the principle of thermoelectricity (Seebeck effect). When the junction of two dissimilar electronic conductors - typically two metals, two semimetals, or semiconductors - is held at temperature T (the so-called cold junction ), a measurable voltage develops between it and the hot (Tz) junction. This thermoelectric voltage (V) of the two conductors can be measured according to (3.9). 

Thermocouples are based on the thermoelectric Seebeck effect, which generates a voltage at the junction between two metallic conductors, which depends on temperature [13]. Thus, in the measuring circuit, two junctions are created, namely, a sensitive (or hot) junction at the point where temperature has to be measured and a nonsensitive (cold) junction, kept at a constant known temperature, where the voltage established between the conductors can be easily measured [19]. Different typologies of thermocouples exist for application in a wide range of conditions they essentially differ by the materials, the most common being J (iron/constantan), K (chromel/alumel), T (copper/constantan), and E (chromel/constantan). 

The most often used temperature detectors in renewable energy and most other processes are the thermocouples (TCs). Their operation is based on the principle known as the Seebeck effect. T. J. Seebeck discovered that heating the junction of dissimilar metals generates a small, continuous electromotive force (EMF). The name is a combination of thermo and couple denoting heat and two junctions, respectively. The dissimilar TC wires are joined at the hot (or measurement) end and also at the cold junction (reference end),... 

Thermocouples, or thermal junctions, or thermoelectric thermometers have two intermetallic junctions between two different metals (or semimetals, or semiconductors) A, B in a loop (Fig. 10.21). When these two junctions are held at different temperatures (T i, and T2), then a potential difference A Vis set up this is the Seebeck98 effect. For instance, for a Cu-constantan thermocouple, with T2 = 300 K and T, 273.15 K, AV = 1.0715 mV. Its converse is the Peltier99 effect If a current at a fixed voltage is applied in a loop like in Fig. 10.21, then a temperature difference AT can be maintained (thermoelectric heaters and coolers). The Seebeck effect arises because, before the junctions are made, the two metals have different Fermi levels after the junctions are made, electrons will flow from the higher-level metal to the lower-level metal, until a single Fermi level results across the junction. 

Seebeck effect — is the potential difference that results when the joins of two different metals are at different temperatures and induces a movement of charge through the conductors. The Seebeck effect is the opposite of the Peltier effect (see - Peltier heat). 

In a nonisothermal system, an electric current (flow) may be coupled with a heat flow this effect is known as the thermoelectric effect. There are two reciprocal phenomena of thermoelectricity arising from the interference of heat and electric conductions the first is called the Peltier effect. This effect is known as the evolution or the absorption of heat at junctions of metals resulting from the flow of an electric current. The other is the thermoelectric force resulting from the maintenance of the junctions made of two different metals at different temperatures. This is called the Seebeck effect. Temperature measurements by thermocouples are based on the Seebeck effect. 

Consider the Seebeck effect resulting from two junctions maintained at two different temperatures as shown in Figure 7.5. Assume that points 1 and 4 are at the same temperature T0. These points are connected to a potentiometer so that the electromotive force E can be measured with zero current Je = 0. Under these conditions and using the reciprocal rules, Eq. (7.287) yields... 

The Seebeck effect is involved in the generation of thermoEMF in a closed electric circuit that is composed of different metals whose junctions are maintained at different temperatures. This phenomenon is widely used, for example, for measuring the temperature with the help of thermocou pies. In this case, the thermoEMF is caused by the redistribution of the current carriers through the conductors due to the existence of the tern perature gradient. 

Like the thermoelectric Seebeck effect, the thermomechanical effect implies the appearance of a pressure difference Ap = p2 - pi in the capillary connected vessels filled with a mobile substance—a hquid or gas— when the vessels are maintained at different temperatures with the temperature difference AT = T2 — Tj. The case of the vessels separated by a porous partition rather than one capillary is called thermoosmosis. The inverse phenomenon— the appearance of a temperature difference as a result of the pressure difference in the vessels—is called the mechanocaloric effect. 

The operation principle of a thermocouple is described by the Seebeck effect When two dissimilar materials are joined together at two junctions and these junctions are maintained at different temperatures, an electromotive force (EMF) exists across the two junctions. 

An elementary thermocouple circuit is shown in Fig. 16.16. The EMF generated in this circuit is a function of the materials used and the temperatures of the junctions. It is useful to describe briefly the basic thermoelectric phenomena or effects that are related to the Seebeck effect and are present in thermocouple measurements. They include two well-known irreversible phenomena—Joule heating and thermal conduction—and two reversible phenomena—the Peltier effect and the Thompson effect. 

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