A CFD Study on the Hydrogen Leakage for Residential Fuel cell System

가정용 연료전지 시스템 내부의 수소 누출에 관한 전산해석

Hydrogen is receiving much research attention as an alternative substitute for hydrocarbon fuels these days due to its cleanliness and renewability. However, hydrogen should be used with caution because of its high propensity for leak and wide flammable range. This study deals with a situation that hydrogen leaks and then forms a flammable mixture inside 1kW class residential fuel cell. The residential fuel cell was modeled as a box-shaped chamber with vent openings at the top and bottom, filled with various components such as reformer, desulfurizer, fuel cell stack and humidifier. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the diffusion, buoyant flow and accumulation of leaked hydrogen in the modeled chamber. From the simulation, the risk region vulnerable to flame was identified and the methods to minimize such hazardous region was discussed. When the vent openings are 1% of the total surface, as the quantity of hydrogen leakage increases the risk regions increases accordingly. As the vent openings of the total surface increased from 1% to 2.3%, averaged hydrogen mole fraction is under 1% in the system.