• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.359-366
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• 2008

A two-dimensional thermal model of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with large active area is developed to investigate the performance of fuel cell with large active area over various thermal management conditions. The core sub-models of the two-dimensional thermal model are one-dimensional agglomerate structure electrochemical reaction model, one-dimensional water transport model, and a two-dimensional heat transfer model. Prior to carrying out the simulation, this study is contributed to set up the operating temperature of the fuel cell with large active area which is a maximum temperature inside the fuel cell considering durability of membrane electrolyte. The simulation results show that the operating temperature of the fuel cell and temperature distribution inside the fuel cell can affect significantly the total net power at extreme conditions. Results also show that the parasitic losses of balance of plant component should be precisely controlled to produce the maximum system power with minimum parasitic loss of thermal management system.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.292-300
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• 2007

A dynamic system model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) has been developed. The PEMFC of this study has large active area with water cooling in order to simulate the performance of the commercially viable PEMFC system for the transportation. A PEMFC stack model is a transient thermal model which is respond to the dynamic change of the coolant temperature and the flow rate. The dynamic cooling system model has been developed to determine the coolant flow rate and the coolant temperature. Prior to the system level study, thermal management criteria have been set up and brought to the control command of the cooling system. Since the system model is designed to evaluate the effect of thermal management on the system performance, it is attempted to determine the proper control algorithm of the cooling system so that the PEMFC system is working on the thermal management criteria. As a result of simulation, feedback controlled cooling system consumes less power and produce more power comparing with that of conventionally controlled cooling system.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2839-2844
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• 2008

A PEMFC(proton exchange membrane fuel cell) is a good candidate for residential power generation to be cope with the shortage of fossil fuel and green house gas emission. The attractive benefit of the PEMFC is to produce electric power as well as hot water for home usage. Typically, thermal management of vehicular PEMFC is to reject the heat from the PEMFC to the ambient air. Different from that, the thermal management of PEMFC for RPG is to utilize the heat of PEMFC so that the PEMFC can be operated at its optimal efficiency. In this study, dynamic thermal management system is modeled to understand the response of the thermal management system during dynamic operation. The thermal management system of PEMFC for RPGFC is composed of two cooling circuits, one for controling the fuel cell temperature and the other for heating up the water for home usage. Dynamic responses and operating strategies of the PEMFC system are investigated during load changes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2013

The stringent emission regulation and future shortage of fossil fuel motivate the research of alternative powertrain. In this study, a system of proton exchange membrane fuel cell has been modeled to analyze the performance of the fuel cell system for automotive application. The model is composed of the fuel cell stack, air compressor, humidifier, and intercooler, and hydrogen supply which are implemented by using the Matlab/Simulink(R). Fuel cell stack model is empirical model but the water transport model is included so that the system performance can be predicted over various humidity conditions. On the other hand, the model of air compressor is composed of motor, static air compressor, and some manifolds so that the motor dynamics and manifold dynamics can be investigated. Since the model is concentrated on the strategic operation of compressor to reduce the power consumption, other balance of components (BOP) are modeled to be static components. Since the air compressor model is empirical model which is based on curve fitting of experiments, the stack model is validated with the commercial software and the experiments. The dynamics of air compressor is investigated over unit change of system load. The results shows that the power consumption of air compressor is about 12% to 25% of stack gross power and dynamic response should be reduced to optimize the system operation.