2024/12/19 by Paul Raux, Raux, Paul, Christophe Goupil +3
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Thermal properties of materials #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.15036
18 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2405.11886
openalex publication_date 2024/12/19 · arxiv created 2025/06/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28 · arxiv updated 2026/08/07
Following up on the recently published circuit theory for thermodynamic devices, we consider networks of Thermo-Electric Converters (TECs) in stationary non-equilibrium. Assuming constant thermoelectric properties, the integration over a finite thickness of the linear local response of the thermoelectric material yields the non-linear current-force characteristics. We show how to derive a choice of nonequilibrium conductance matrix summarizing the current-force characteristics for every available sets of currents and forces. This problem has infinitely many solutions if one considers only thermodynamic constraints. Each solution differs, among others, by the coupling between the currents. Then, we determine the current-force characteristics of the serial (respectively parallel) association of two TECs using the laws of resistance (respectively conductance) matrix addition. For TECs in series, we find current-dependent boundary conditions for each sub-device. Since currents derive from composite potentials, we also associate the derivability and continuity of these potentials at the interfaces with conditions on thermoelectric coefficients. For TECs in parallel, we discuss the possibility of loop currents that are forbidden for the serial association.