Design Optimization of a Miniaturized Thermoelectric Generator Via Parametric Model Order Reduction

Implantable medical devices play a major role for regenerative therapies. A novel, miniaturized thermoelectric generator can be utilized to harvest the thermal energy from temperature gradients inside human body. Thus it functions as an additional power supply for electrically active implants. In this work, we present an optimization strategy for thermoelectric generator based on mathematical methods of parametric model order reduction. Those methods enable an automatized reduction of the finite element model of thermoelectric generator and surrounding human tissue. Parameterized reduced order models are compact, but highly accurate and are well suited for efficient parametric studies.