Some new Thomson's second relations for a thermoelectric device
L.A. Arias-Hernández [1], R.T. Páez-Hernández [2], F. Angulo [1]

[1] Dpto. de Fisica, Escuela Superior de Fisica y Matematicas, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, U.P. Zacatenco, Edif. #9, 2o Piso, Ciudad de Mexico, 07738, Mexico, [2] Area de Fisica de Procesos Irreversibles, Dpto. de Ciencias Basicas, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-A, Av. San Pablo #180, Ciudad de Mexico, 02200, Mexico.

Abstract: Within the linear irreversible thermodynamics context, in recent years energy converter models have been proposed. The results show that it is possible to obtain stationary states with nonzero power output for these converters. One of the first irreversible energy converter studied was the thermocouple. Thomson derived two important relationships for the relevant effects that describe the energetic behavior of this converter.
These relations were justified under the theory proposed by Onsager. In this work we show that if the thermocouple is operated in a different regime to that of minimum entropy production, we can derive new relations between the Peltier heat and the Seebeck power.