Size effect plays a major role in miniaturized thermoelectric devices. In this paper, a nonlinear contact model of a thermoelectric strip is established to reveal the thickness size effect. For the multi-field problem, the singular integral equations in terms of the normal electric current density, normal energy flux, and contact pressure are obtained and solved numerically with the collocation methods. The resulting integral equation for contact pressure indicates that the thermoelectric effects jointly with the thickness size effect make the problem rather complicated. Numerical results show the thickness size effects on the distribution of the normal electric current density, normal energy flux, contact pressure as well as their respective intensity factors.

尺寸效应在小型化热电器件中起着重要作用。在本文中，建立了热电带的非线性接触模型来揭示厚度尺寸效应。对于多场问题，通过配置方法得到法向电流密度、法向能通量和接触压力的奇异积分方程并进行数值求解。所得的接触压力积分方程表明，热电效应与厚度尺寸效应共同使问题变得相当复杂。数值结果显示了厚度尺寸对法向电流密度、法向能通量、接触压力的分布及其各自的强度因子的影响。