• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.6-13
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• 2012

This paper describes unsteady internal flow characteristics of a cathode air blower, used for the 1 kW fuel cell system. The cathode air blower considered in the present study is a diaphragm type blower. To analyze the flow field inside the diaphragm cavity, compressible unsteady numerical simulation is performed. Moving mesh system is applied to the numerical analysis for describing the volume change of the diaphragm cavity in time. Throughout a numerical simulation by modeling the inlet and outlet valves in a diaphragm cavity, unsteady nature of an internal flow is successfully analyzed. Variations of mass flow rate, force and pressure on the lower moving plate of a diaphragm cavity are evaluated in time. The computed mass flow rate at the same pressure and rotating frequency of a motor has a maximum of 5 percent error with the experimental data. It is found that flow pattern at the suction process is more complex compared to that at the discharge process. Unsteady nature of internal flow in the cathode air blower is analyzed in detail.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.4065-4071
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• 2014

The analysis results of the temperature distribution and deformation at the PV cell with a thickness of $200{\mu}m$ according to hot-air temperature at the soldering process of a PV cell and ribbon tend to agree somewhat with the experimental measured values. The best result of the electrical efficiency appears in the module soldered at a hot-air temperature of $390^{\circ}C$. An analysis of the soldering PV cell with a thickness of $150{\mu}m$ at a hot-air temperature of $350^{\circ}C$ confirmed that the maximum deformation was approximately 5.9mm. As the temperature of hot air is set to decrease, the deformation is reduced and it is predicted that the electrical efficiency can be improved.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.29 no.6 s.237
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• pp.722-729
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• 2005

Design analysis of the solid oxide fuel cell and gas turbine combined power system is performed considering different methods for preheating cell inlet air. The purpose of air preheating is to keep the temperature difference between cell inlet and outlet within a practical design range thus to reduce thermal stress inside the cell. Three different methods considered are (1) adopting a burner in front of the cell, (2) adopting a preheater (heat transfer from the main combustor) in front of the cell and (3) using recirculation of the cathode exit gas. For each configuration, analyses are carried out for two values of allowable maximum cell temperature difference. Performance characteristics of all cases are compared and design limitations are discussed. Relaxation of the cell temperature difference (larger difference) is proved to ensure higher efficiency. Recirculation of the cathode exit gas exhibits better performance than other methods and this advantage becomes more prominent as the constraint of the cell temperature difference becomes more severe (smaller temperature difference).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.368-373
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• 2004

To improve the conventional cathode-supported tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) from the viewpoint of low cell power density, expensive fabrication process and high operation temperature, the anode-supported tubular solid oxide fuel cell was investigated. The anode tube of Ni-8mol% $Y_2$O$_3$-stabilized $ZrO_2$ (8YSZ) was manufactured by extrusion process, and, the electrolyte of 8YSZ and the multi-layered cathode of $LaSrMnO_3$(LSM)ILSM-YSZ composite/$LaSrCoFeO_3$ were coated on the surface of the anode tube by slurry dip coating process, subsequently. Their cell performances were examined under gases of humidified hydrogen with 3% water and air. In the thermal cycle condition of heating and cooling rates with $3.33^{\circ}C$/min, the anode-supported tubular cell showed an excellent resistance as compared with the electrolyte-supported planar cell. The optimum hydrogen flow rate was evaluated and the air preheating increased the cell performance due to the increased gas temperature inside the cell. In long-term stability test, the single cell indicated a stable performance of 300 mA/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at 0.85 V for 255 hr.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.10d
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• pp.212-214
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• 2006

Air Management System is composed by Pump, Fan, Compressor and Blower In general their performances depend on the capability of the motor, power converter device and controller. Especially, it should be noticed upon designing Air Management System using for Fuel Cell System, that Pump, Fan, Compressor and Blower satisfy the condition of the high performance, high efficiency, high density and reasonable price considering the safety and Economic Efficiency. In order for this, it should be studied that which kind of Motor is the most suited for Air Management System for Fuel Cell, such as Induction Motor, Brushless DC Motor, and Switched Reluctance Motor which is widely using in industry. This paper presents the designing and manufacturing of Outer Rotor Type BLDC Motor and Driver for Air Blower of Air Management System. Experimental results from a laboratory prototype arc presented to validate the feasibility of the proposed Air Blower Motor and Driver.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.279-282
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• 2020

In this study, body pressure was quantitatively detected using built-in optical sensors, inside an air cushion seat. The proposed system visualizes the effect of the body pressure distribution on the air cushion seat. The built-in sensor is based on the time-of-flight (ToF) optical method, instead of the conventional electrical sensor. A ToF optical sensors is attached to the bottom surface of the air-filled cells in the air cushion. Therefore, ToF sensors are durable, as they do not come in physical contact with the body even after repeated use. A ToF sensor indirectly expresses the body pressure by measuring the change in the height of the air-filled cell, after being subjected to the weight of the body. An array of such sensors can measure the body pressure distribution when the user sits on the air cushion seat. We implemented a prototype of the air cushion seat equipped with 7 ToF optical sensors and investigated its characteristics. In this experiment, the ToF optical pressure sensor successfully identified the pressure distribution corresponding to a sitting position. The data were accessed through a mobile device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.342-350
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• 2009

Fuel cells convert a fuel together with oxygen in a highly efficient electrochemical reaction to electricity and water. Since the electrochemical reaction in the fuel cell stack dose not generate any noise, Fuel cell systems are expected to operated much quieter than combustion engines. However, the tonal noise and the broad band noise caused by a centrifugal compressor and an electric motor cause which is required to feed the ambient air to the cathode of the fuel cell stack with high pressure. In this study, the multi-camber perforated muffler is used to reduce noise. We propose optimized muffler model using an axiomatic design method that optimizes the parameters of perforated muffler while keeping the volume of muffler minimized.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.232-238
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• 2008

Research has been proceeded on fuel cell which is fueled by hydrogen. Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is promising power source due to high power density, simple construction and operation at low temperature. But it has problems such as high cost, temperature dependent performance. These problems could be solved by experiment which is useful for analysis and optimization of fuel cell performance and heat management. In this paper, when hydrogen flows constantly at the stoichiometry of ${\xi}=1.6$, the performance of the fuel cell stack was increased and the voltage difference between each cells was decreased according to the increase of air stoichiometry by 2.0, 2.5, 3.0. Therefore, the control of air flow rate in the same gas channel is important to get higher performance. Purpose of this research is to expect operation temperature, flow rate, performance and mass transportation through experiment and to help actual manufacture of PEM fuel cell stack.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.44-52
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• 2012

Fuel cell electric vehicles have some noise problems due to its air processing unit which is required to feed the ambient air into the fuel cell stack. Discrete-frequency noises are radiated from a centrifugal blower due to rotor-stator interaction. Their fundamental frequency is the blade passing frequency, which is determined by the number of rotor blades and their rotating speed. To reduce such noises, multi-chamber perforated muffler has been designed. In this paper, in order to improve the transmission loss of a perforated muffler, the relationship between the impedance model of a perforated hole and its noise reduction performance is studied, and the applicability of a short-length perforated muffler to air processing unit of fuel cell system is described using acoustic simulation results and experimental data. The acoustic velocity vector across the neck of a perforated hole is very important design factor to optimize the transmission of an intake muffler. The suggested short-length perforated muffler is effective on discrete-frequency noises while keeping the volume of intake muffler minimized.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.33-36
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• 2008

The transient behavior of a passive air breathing direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) operated on vapor-feeding mode is studied in this paper. It generally takes 30 minutes after starting for the cell response to come to its steady-state and the response is sometimes unstable. A mathematical dynamic one-dimensional model for simulating transient response of the DMFC is presented. In this model a DMFC is decomposed into its subsystems using lumped model and divided into five layers, namely the anodic diffusion layer, the anodic catalyst layer, the proton exchange membrane (PEM), the cathodic catalyst layer and the cathodic diffusion layer. All layers are considered to have finite thickness, and within every one of them a set of differential-algebraic governing equations are given to represent multi-components mass balance, such as methanol, water, oxygen and carbon dioxide, charge balance, the electrochemical reaction and mass transport phenomena. A one-dimensional, isothermal and mass transport model is developed that captures the coupling between water generation and transport, oxygen consumption and natural convection. The single cell is supplied by pure methanol vapor from a methanol reservoir at the anode, and the oxygen is supplied via natural air-breathing at the cathode. The water is not supplied from external source because the cell uses the water created at the cathode using water back diffusion through nafion membrane. As a result of simulation strong effects of water transport were found out. The model analysis provides several conclusions. The performance drop after peak point is caused by insufficiency of water at the anode. The excess water at the cathode makes performance recovery impossible. The undesired crossover of the reactant methanol through the PEM causes overpotential at the cathode and limits the feeding methanol concentration.