Thermal management for an air coolant system of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell using heat distribution optimization. (25th February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yuan, Wei-Wei; Ou, Kai; Kim, Young-Bae
• Is Part Of: Applied thermal engineering. Volume 167(2019)
• Publication Date: 2020-02-25
• Subjects: Thermal management -- Control-oriented thermal model -- PEM fuel cell -- Temperature control -- State machine control -- Temperature gradient; Heat engineering -- Periodicals; Heating -- Equipment and supplies -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 621.40205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114715
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-4311

Abstract

Highlights: Thermal management scheme is developed to increase the fuel cell power. Control-oriented thermal model is developed to design the controller. Experimental results show the validity of the thermal management algorithm. Abstract: This study aims to analyze the temperature characteristics of an air-cooled PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) fuel cell and control its temperature distribution. A temperature control method for the air-cooled PEM fuel cell is achieved by regulating the operating temperature optimally and reducing the temperature gradient. A 3D numerical model is employed to predict the temperature distribution of the stack in the direction of the cooling channel at different air speeds. A multi-node control oriented model is constructed through simulation and control strategy design to reflect difference in the temperature distribution of the fuel cell in the direction of the cooling flow channel. The proposed thermal management system regulates the direction of the coolant airflow based on the finite-state machine control and the airflow speed control based on conventional proportional-integral control. The experiment is implemented on a 1.2 kW PEM fuel cell system for the thermal management validation and results show that the present temperature control scheme can enhance the performance of the cell and reduce the temperature gradient within 0.5 °C.