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The performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell is greatly influenced by the presence, distribution and transport of liquid water in the gas diffusion layer (GDL). In this study, air-water flow in a 3D GDL microstructure along the in-plane direction is studied numerically by using the volume of fluid (VOF) method. The GDL microstructure is considered initially filled with water, air flows into the structure under the driving force of a set pressure drop and the flow is supported by the capillary pressure due to the hydrophobic nature of the GDL structure. It is found that water removal can be accelerated by improving pressure drop. Pressure drop has little influence on the state-steady water volume fraction when the pressure drop is over a critical value.

Abstract The reliability of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) tightly depends on the suitable operating conditions during dynamic operations. This study proposes an optimization framework to determine the optimal control strategy for PEMFC cold starts underpinned by a novel artificial intelligence method, to improve cold-start capacity and shorten the start-up time. The effects of constant and dynamic currents on PEMFC cold starts under various initial temperatures are studied. The numerical results from a developed PEMFC dynamic model show that the constant current slope strategy (CCSS) is more efficient than the constant current strategy (CCS) in respect of the cold-start time. In the CCSS study, a too-large current slope can lead to a voltage undershoot and then cause a failed cold start, but a too-small current slope can result in a long start-up process in the investigated range of the operating conditions. A data-driven model is developed for dynamic prediction and real-time optimization during the cold start by a semi-recurrent sliding window (SW) method coupled with artificial neural networks (NN) with the simulation data. Based on this NN-SW model, the specific safety–critical operating condition curve under the CCSS has been identified. A real-time adaptive control strategy (RACS) is further proposed to optimize the operating current during the PEMFC cold starts with various initial temperatures. Compared to the optimal CCSS, RACS proves to be more robust and efficient for PEMFC cold-start startups. Based on RACS, the start-up time for an initial temperature of −20 °C can be cut down by 26.7%. Furthermore, the ice predictions by the NN-SW model are also tested and the results are satisfying with an average R2 = 0.9773.

202208 bcch ; RGC ; Published ; 24 months ; Green (AAM)

Abstract In this study, an enhanced non-isothermal, two-phase 1D analytical proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) model is developed, which not only considers the water saturation jump, but also proposes a novel method to analytically solve the water phase changes and couple the liquid and vapor transport together. A stringent model validation procedure is used to show good agreement between the simulated results and the experimental data, taking advantage of the “three-step” and “multi-case” validation methods. It is revealed that the uncertain parameters may deteriorate model reliability and credibility, thus demonstrating the necessity to conduct sensitivity analysis. A multi-parametric screening method i.e. the elementary effect (EE) method based on Monte Carlo experiments is implemented to comprehensively analyze the total 22 uncertain parameters (including geometric, physical and electrochemical parameters), which are finally classified into very sensitive ones, rather sensitive ones and insensitive ones. The cathodic parameters are found more sensitive than the anodic ones, and the parameters of different components may have distinct sensitivity. Besides, whether the effect of each parameter is positive or negative on cell performance is also discussed. Furthermore, three cases with different groups of parameters are presented, which show almost the same polarization curve, and the two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test is applied to verify the stability difference. It is concluded that those uncertain parameters not only influence the cell performance but also affect the model stability, and hence the effects of varying operating conditions should be taken into account in validation work.

Abstract The droplet dynamics inside a sinusoidal channel for PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) are investigated numerically using the VOF (volume of fluid) method. This study is done for three geometrically different channels corresponding to various non-dimensional sinusoidal distances (50, 25, 12.5, 16.7 and 8.3). The effects of key parameters like sinusoidal distance (pitch-amplitude ratio), radius of curvature and wall contact angle on the droplet removal in the flow channel are investigated. The performance of the sinusoidal as compared to the conventional channel is studied based on droplet removal rate and GDL (gas diffusion layer) surface water coverage. It is found that the droplet removal rate increases with increasing sinusoidal distance and wall contact angle. In addition, decrease in the sinusoidal distance results in a significant reduction in the average droplet speed and gas diffusion layer surface water coverage. It was also observed that broken bits of the droplet stuck on the wall corners accrued with a reduction in the wall contact angle. The curvy nature of the side walls generally induces a secondary flow effect which would be most beneficial in enhanced reactant diffusion and cell performance. It is suggested that the sinusoidal distance and wall contact angle effect on two-phase flow in a channel is highly significant. As such, needs to be considered for water management in sinusoidal channels.

Abstract The performance of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) is significantly affected by the carbon monoxide (CO) in hydrogen fuel, and the flow channel design may influence the CO poisoning characteristics by changing the reactant flow. In this study, three-dimensional non-isothermal simulations are carried out to investigate the comprehensive flow channel design and CO poisoning effects on the performance of HT-PEMFCs. The numerical results show that when pure hydrogen is supplied, the interdigitated design produces the highest power output, the power output with serpentine design is higher than the two parallel designs, and the parallel-Z and parallel-U designs have similar power outputs. The performance degradation caused by CO poisoning is the least significant with parallel flow channel design, but the most significant with serpentine and interdigitated designs because the cross flow through the electrode is stronger. At low cell voltages (high current densities), the highest power outputs are with interdigitated and parallel flow channel designs at low and high CO fractions in the supplied hydrogen, respectively. The general distributions of absorbed hydrogen and CO coverage fractions in anode catalyst layer (CL) are similar for the different flow channel designs. The hydrogen coverage fraction is higher under the channel than under the land, and is also higher on the gas diffusion layer (GDL) side than on the membrane side; and the CO coverage distribution is opposite to the hydrogen coverage distribution.

Abstract Thermoelectric generator (TEG) has attracted considerable attention for the waste heat recovery of internal combustion engine. In this study, a 3-D numerical model for engine exhaust-based thermoelectric generator (ETEG) system is developed. By considering the detailed geometry of thermoelectric generator (TEG) and exhaust channel, the various transport phenomena are investigated, and design optimization suggestions are given. It is found that the exhaust channel size needs to be moderate to balance the heat transfer to TEG modules and pressure drop along channel. Increasing the number of exhaust channels may improve the performance, however, since more space and TEG modules are needed, the system size and cost need to be considered as well. Although only placing bafflers at the channel inlet could increase the heat transfer coefficient for the whole channel, the near wall temperature downstream might decrease significantly, leading to performance degradation of the TEG modules downstream. To ensure effective utilization of hot exhaust gas, the baffler angle needs to be sufficiently large, especially for the downstream locations. Since larger baffler angles increase the pressure drop significantly, it is suggested that variable baffler angles, with the angle increasing along the flow direction, might be a middle course for balancing the heat transfer and pressure drop. A single ETEG design may not be suitable to all the engine operating conditions, and making the number of exhaust channels and baffler angle adjustable according to different engine operating conditions might improve the performance.