thermoCellCode

Thermocell

Andrey Gunawan won a grant from the Electrochemical Society (ECS) to demonstrate his thermogalvanic cell for heat recovery in automotive applications. So we designed an apparatus to simulate conditions in an automotive application including:

• Variable ambient temperature and flow using a room air conditioner and exhaust fan blowing through a small wind tunnel
• Variable temperature engine exhaust using a heat gun
• Removable thermocell
• Measurement of temperatures throughout the thermal network
• I-V curve tracing

To collect data we used these instruments and modifications.

Instruments and controls

• Campbell Scientific CR23x for temperature recording. We programmed the instrument with the proprietary software, then polled it like a DAQ using the serial connection and interface manual. This provided data at about 1 sec intervals instead of the 60 second intervals for logged data.
• Keithley …. We used the source-current, read-voltage function to perform current sweeping, potentially for MPPT with the low-current cell.
• Arduino board for control. We controlled the room A/C via its infrared receiver. We also added relays to switch the heat gun and blower fan.

To-Do:

• Connect above bullet points to code sources
• Include images, schematics, and protocols
• References for publications