Efficient Thermal Management Research Of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

As an efficient, clean and green power source, proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) has various advantages, such as efficient energy conversion, low operating temperature, no pollution, high specific power, rapid start-up, etc. It has become a hot research topic in the field of energy. Efficient thermal management is significant for proton exchange membrane as nearly 40-50% energy within PEMFC tends to be dissipated in the form of thermal energy. Moreover, the overall temperature control and the uniformity of internal temperature distribution are two important factors affecting the normal electrochemical reaction and long-term stable operation of PEMFC. Therefore, effective thermal management is the key to ensuring PEMFC’s high performance and efficiency.In this paper, the heat generation process in PEMFC was analyzed according to its operation principle, revealing that the internal heat of the fuel cell was generated during electrochemical reaction and phase changes; a lumped parameter model was constructed based on a heat transfer principle. To simulate and analyze the heat management of PEMFC, a lumped parameter model of dynamic heat transfer in fuel cell stack was developed based on the principle of energy conservation. Then a numerical simulation using the sinda/fluent software was carried out as follows:(1) Since the problem of local high temperature was unavoidable in traditional PEMFC using the liquid cooling system, a phase-change heat transfer technique using microchannel array was first applied to PEMFC to maintain optimum operating temperatures. This can enrich the theory on thermal management of fuel cell.(2) An analysis was performed to investigate the influences of the changes in the diameter, number, and fixing angle of heat pipes on the fuel cell’s performance and temperature distribution. A new type of efficient thermal management system was developed; its core heat dissipation component was a phase-change heat transfer element with microchannel array.(3) The influences of the factors governing heat transfer in PEMFC on rapid temperature rise were discussed. Then based on the results and the temperature mechanism model, the heat dissipation performance of heat pipes was analyzed and assessed and related suggestions were made about improving heat dissipation. The analysis focused on how to achieve temperature control through the heat dissipation of heat pipes.The numerical simulation shows that the new thermal management system effectively solve the internal temperature of the fuel cell uneven distribution bottlenecks. The research results proved that use liquid within a closed space phase change heat transfer technology could achieve high heat transfer efficiency, fast start, good temperature performance, simple control, and suit for heat PEMFC battery pack. Thus, the battery inside the microchannel explore phase change heat transfer mechanism and the boiling heat transfer enhancement mechanism has important scientific significance.At present, the project has published 3 research papers in core domestic journals, and apply for a patent.