Powering a Biosensor Using Wearable Thermoelectric Technology

Wearable medical devices such as insulin pumps, glucose monitors, hearing aids, and electrocardiograms provide necessary medical aid and monitoring to millions of users worldwide. These battery powered devices require battery replacement and frequent charging that reduces the freedom and peace of mind of users. Additionally, the significant portion of the world without access to electricity is unable to use these medical devices as they have no means to power them constantly. Wearable thermoelectric power generation aims to charge these medical device batteries without a need for grid power. Our team has developing a wristband prototype that uses body heat, ambient air, and heat sinks to create a temperature difference across thermoelectric modules thus generating ultra-low voltage electrical power. A boost converter is implemented to boost this voltage to the level required by medical device batteries. Our goal was to use this generated power to charge medical device batteries off-the-grid, increasing medical device user freedom and allowing medical device access to those without electricity. We successfully constructed a wearable prototype that generates the voltage required by an electrocardiogram battery; however, further thermoelectric module and heat dissipation optimization is necessary to generate sufficient current to charge the battery

Experimental Investigation on Thermoelectric Generator for Battery- Charger Based Oven

In this research paper, thermoelectric generator (TEG) module was embedded inside the oven to harvest electrical energy from heat waste of the kitchen oven.  The development of experimental setup was investigated in closed-circuit from room temperature rise to 150°C in 60 min using kitchen oven with custom-made aluminum heatsink with built-in water-cooling tank attached on the TEG module. The maximum voltage output was generated about 1.87V in single TEG module where gradient of TEG was measured about 0.0337V/°C.  The harvested output of voltage was demonstrated by charging a single lithium battery ‘AA’ in 110 mins for full-charged and it was able to power a LED torch light

Utilization of Produced Heat in Motorcycle Exhaust as a Mobile Battery Charger Using Thermoelectric Seebeck Generator

Produced heat from motorcycle exhaust has been used to recharge cellphone batteries using a thermoelectric seebeck generator and program settings from the Arduino microcontroller. This tool consists of an LM 35 sensor that functions as a temperature reader, TEG as a heat converter to voltage, DC to DC Booster as a voltage controller, Arduino Uno as a data processor, LCD as a display. The software in this tool uses the Arduino IDE program. This tool is used to convert heat into voltage. The working principle of this system in general is that when the exhaust heat is removed, the controller will read the data from the LM 35 temperature sensor. After that the data will be processed by the microcontroller. After obtaining the processed data, the result data is then displayed on the LCD and the relay circuit will activate the system when the required voltage is appropriat

A Framework for Flexible Loads Aggregation

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Radioisotope Heater Unit-Based Stirling Power Convertor Development at NASA Glenn Research Center

Stirling Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) are being developed as an option to provide power on future space science missions where robotic spacecraft will orbit, flyby, land or rove. A variety of mission concepts have been studied by NASA and the U. S. Department of Energy that would utilize RPS for landers, probes, and rovers and only require milliwatts to tens of watts of power. These missions would contain science measuring instruments that could be distributed across planetary surfaces or near objects of interest in space solar flux insufficient for using solar cells. A low power Stirling convertor is being developed to provide an RPS option for future low power applications. Initial concepts convert heat available from several Radioisotope Heater Units to electrical power for spacecraft instruments and communication. Initial development activity includes defining and evaluating a variety of Stirling configurations and selecting one for detailed design, research of advanced manufacturing methods that could simplify fabrication, evaluating thermal interfaces, characterizing components and subassemblies to validate design codes, and preparing for an upcoming demonstration of proof of concept in a laboratory environment

Modeling and Analysis of Power Processing Systems

The feasibility of formulating a methodology for the modeling and analysis of aerospace electrical power processing systems is investigated. It is shown that a digital computer may be used in an interactive mode for the design, modeling, analysis, and comparison of power processing systems

Smoke Aerosol Characterization for Spacecraft Fire Detection Systems

Appropriate design of fire detection systems requires knowledge of both the expected fire signature and the background aerosol levels. Terrestrial fire detection systems have been developed based on extensive study of terrestrial fires. Unfortunately there is no corresponding data set for spacecraft fires and consequently the fire detectors in current spacecraft were developed based upon terrestrial designs. There are a number of factors that affect the smoke particle size distribution in spacecraft fires. In low gravity, buoyant flow is negligible which causes particles to concentrate at the smoke source, increasing their residence time, and increasing the transport time to smoke detectors. Microgravity fires have significantly different structure than those in 1-g which can change the formation history of the smoke particles. Finally the materials used in spacecraft are different from typical terrestrial environments where smoke properties have been evaluated. It is critically important to detect a fire in its early phase before a flame is established, given the fixed volume of air on any spacecraft. Consequently, the primary target for spacecraft fire detection is pyrolysis products rather than soot. This dissertation is a compilation of experimental investigations performed at three different NASA facilities which characterize smoke aerosols from overheating common spacecraft materials. The earliest effort consists of aerosol measurements in low gravity, called the Smoke Aerosol Measurement Experiment (SAME), and subsequent ground-based testing of SAME smoke in 55-gallon drums with an aerosol reference instrument. The feasibility of the moment method for characterizing smoke from limited data, including the lognormal assumption, is explored. Experiments in low gravity are very rare and expensive, so detailed studies to exploit every possible aspect of the data to increase the science outcome are warranted. Another set of experiments were performed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), with additional fuels and an alternate smoke production method. Measurements of these smoke products include mass and number concentration, and a thermal precipitator was designed for this investigation to capture particles for microscopic analysis. Smoke particle morphology and chemical composition are analyzed for various fuels. The final data presented are from NASA’s Gases and Aerosols from Smoldering Polymers (GASP) Laboratory, with selected results focusing on realistic fuel preparations and heating profiles with regards to early detection of smoke. Additional research on ambient air quality in the International Space Station (ISS) is presented which sheds light on background aerosols that may interfere with smoke detection in spacecraft