Projecte llegit
Títol: Energy conversion in a system to generate electricity in the Moon
Director/a: GONZÁLEZ CINCA, RICARD
Departament: FIS
Títol: Energy conversion in a system to generate electricity in the Moon
Data inici oferta: 03-04-2017 Data finalització oferta: 03-12-2017
Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
| Tipus: Individual | |
| Lloc de realització: EETAC | |
| Paraules clau: | |
| solar energy, electricity, Moon | |
| Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats: | |
| We will analyze new materials to convert the solar energy captured in the Moon into electricity. | |
| Overview (resum en anglès): | |
| I am quite certain that well have lunar bases in our lifetime, somewhat like the Antarctic stations and similar scientific outposts, continually manned. These Neil Armstrong words are motivating the world to set up a lunar base and come with a science to make it happen.
Biggest milestone to achieve this goal is to generate electricity for 52-hour long lunar night condition. Research is intensely going on and one novel idea proposed by the UPC Microgravity laboratory to store the day heat into a thermal mass and then use it in the night to convert into electricity by using Stirling heat engine. In this Master thesis works, I am proposing to use the advanced thermoelectric materials replacing the Stirling heat engine to eliminate the necessity of moving parts.thermoelectric materials convert the temperature differential into electricity. Heat energy is provided from the thermal mass which is heated using fresnel lens and solar tracker and it is connected to the hot side of the thermoelectric module. For the large temperature differential, cold side of the circuit is connected to the environment and it will radiate away the heat. Advances in thermoelectric materials are improving the characteristic of electricity generation. for this master thesis, we are using lead telluride as the thermoelectric material. Recent studies have proved that doping lead telluride with 2% Sulphur increases the electricity generation coefficient by 200%. This all combined we can generate the electricity required for the lunar base operation and rover charging during the lunar night conditions. We are analyzing the thermal flow and heat storage of proposed thermal energy storage system and optimizing the thermal mass design to store more thermal energy during the daytime. Thermoelectric simulation is carried out by means of a commercial software to determine the quantity of electricity we can generate during 52 hours lunar night conditions at Shackelton crater located in the south pole of the moon |
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