PEM Fuel Cell Dynamic Model With Phase Change Effect

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 274-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Xue ◽  
J. Tang

In this research, a system-level dynamic model accounting for the phase change effect is developed for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs). This model can illustrate the complicated transient behavior of temperature, gas flow, phase change in the anode and cathode channels, and membrane humidification under operating conditions. Simulation indicates that vapor in the cathode channel is more likely to be in the over saturated state and phase change (condensation under large load current situation) then takes place, which leads to higher temperature at cathode channel due to latent heat generation. In the anode channel, on the other hand, the phase change is less likely to occur even if the inlet hydrogen is humidified with a high relative humidity value. The model is partially validated using the experimental data from open literature. A series of analyses are carried out to investigate the underlying physical mechanisms. This model can be used in the optimal design and dynamic control of PEMFCs.

Author(s):  
Yuping Wang ◽  
Mark Pellerin ◽  
Pravansu Mohanty ◽  
Subrata Sengupta

This paper focuses on the gas flow study of an ejector used in applications where moist gases are being entrained. Two parts of work are presented. In the first part, characteristics of gas flow inside an ejector, as well as the ejector's performance under various operating and geometric configurations, were studied with a three-dimensional computational model. Measurements were also performed for validation of the model. In the second part, focus was given to the potential condensation or desublimation phenomena that may occur inside an ejector when water vapor is included in the entrained stream. Experiments using light-attenuation method were performed to verify the presence of a second phase; then, the onset of phase change and the phase distribution were obtained numerically. A two-dimensional axis-symmetric model was developed based on the model used in the first part. User-defined functions were used to implement the phase-change criteria and particle prediction. A series of simulations were performed with various amounts of water vapor added into the entrained flow. It was found that both frost particles and water condensate could form inside the mixing tube depending on the operating conditions and water vapor concentrations. When the concentration exceeds 3% by mass, water vapor could condense throughout the mixing tube. Some preliminary results of the second phase particles formed, e.g., critical sizes and distributions, were also obtained to assist with the design and optimization of gas ejectors used in similar applications.


Author(s):  
Tonny Tabassum Mainul Hasan ◽  
Latifa Begum

This study reports on the unsteady two-dimensional numerical investigations of melting of a paraffin wax (phase change material, PCM) which melts over a temperature range of 8.7oC. The PCM is placed inside a circular concentric horizontal-finned annulus for the storage of thermal energy. The inner tube is fitted with three radially diverging longitudinal fins strategically placed near the bottom part of the annulus to accelerate the melting process there. The developed CFD code used in Tabassum et al., 2018 is extended to incorporate the presence of fins. The numerical results show that the average Nusselt number over the inner tube surface, the total melt fraction, the total stored energy all increased at every time instant in the finned annulus compared to the annulus without fins. This is due to the fact that in the finned annulus, the fins at the lower part of the annulus promotes buoyancy-driven convection as opposed to the slow conduction melting that prevails at the bottom part of the plain annulus. Fins with two different heights have been considered. It is found that by extending the height of the fin to 50% of the annular gap about 33.05% more energy could be stored compared to the bare annulus at the melting time of 82.37 min for the identical operating conditions. The effects of fins with different heights on the temperature and streamfunction distributions are found to be different. The present study can provide some useful guidelines for achieving a better thermal energy storage system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Du ◽  
Zixin Xiong ◽  
Luis Delgado ◽  
Weizhi Liao ◽  
Joseph Peoples ◽  
...  

AbstractThermal switches have gained intense interest recently for enabling dynamic thermal management of electronic devices and batteries that need to function at dramatically varied ambient or operating conditions. However, current approaches have limitations such as the lack of continuous tunability, low switching ratio, low speed, and not being scalable. Here, a continuously tunable, wide-range, and fast thermal switching approach is proposed and demonstrated using compressible graphene composite foams. Large (~8x) continuous tuning of the thermal resistance is achieved from the uncompressed to the fully compressed state. Environmental chamber experiments show that our variable thermal resistor can precisely stabilize the operating temperature of a heat generating device while the ambient temperature varies continuously by ~10 °C or the heat generation rate varies by a factor of 2.7. This thermal device is promising for dynamic control of operating temperatures in battery thermal management, space conditioning, vehicle thermal comfort, and thermal energy storage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Peyghami ◽  
Tomislav Dragicevic ◽  
Frede Blaabjerg

AbstractThis paper proposes a long-term performance indicator for power electronic converters based on their reliability. The converter reliability is represented by the proposed constant lifetime curves, which have been developed using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) under different operating conditions. Unlike the state-of-the-art theoretical reliability modeling approaches, which employ detailed electro-thermal characteristics and lifetime models of converter components, the proposed method provides a nonparametric surrogate model of the converter based on limited non-linear data from theoretical reliability analysis. The proposed approach can quickly predict the converter lifetime under given operating conditions without a further need for extended, time-consuming electro-thermal analysis. Moreover, the proposed lifetime curves can present the long-term performance of converters facilitating optimal system-level design for reliability, reliable operation and maintenance planning in power electronic systems. Numerical case studies evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed reliability modeling approach.


Author(s):  
K. R. Mrinal ◽  
Md. Hamid Siddique ◽  
Abdus Samad

A progressive cavity pump (PCP) is a positive displacement pump and has been used as an artificial lift method in the oil and gas industry for pumping fluid with solid content and high viscosity. In a PCP, a single-lobe rotor rotates inside a double-lobe stator. Articles on computational works for flows through a PCP are limited because of transient behavior of flow, complex geometry and moving boundaries. In this paper, a 3D CFD model has been developed to predict the flow variables at different operating conditions. The flow is considered as incompressible, single phase, transient, and turbulent. The dynamic mesh model in Ansys-Fluent for the rotor mesh movement is used, and a user defined function (UDF) written in C language defines the rotor’s hypocycloid path. The mesh deformation is done with spring based smoothing and local remeshing technique. The computational results are compared with the experiment results available in the literature. Thepump gives maximum flowrate at zero differential pressure.


Author(s):  
Jens Kamplade ◽  
Tobias Mack ◽  
Andre Küsters ◽  
Peter Walzel

The breakup process of threads from laminar operating rotary atomizer (LamRot) is in the scope of this investigation. A similarity trail is used to investigate the influence of the thread deformation within a cross-wind flow on the thread breakup process. The threads emerge from laminar open channel flow while the liquid viscosity, the flow rate, the pipe inclination towards the gravity as well as the cross-wind velocity is varied. The breakup length and drop size distribution are analyzed by a back-light photography setup. The results thus obtained are compared with results of previous examination by Schröder [1] and Mescher [2]. It is found that the breakup length decreases and that the drop size grows with rising cross-wind intensity, while the width of the drop size distribution increases. At the same operating conditions, the breakup length for laminar open channel flow is smaller compared to completely filled capillaries. In contrast to this observation, the drop size distribution remains nearly unchanged. The critical velocity for the transition from axisymmetric to wind-induced thread breakup was found to be smaller than for completely filled capillaries.


1988 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 472-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Sun

A model of the metal V-belt drive (MBD), considering its detailed multiple-band and metal-block structure, and the ratio-change effect during its operation, is constructed and analyzed. A computational scheme is devised that adapts the analysis to the computation of the MBD’s performance for any specified drive-schedule. General performance characteristics of the MBD and an example illustrating its response to a given drive-schedule are presented. The use of the analysis and the computational scheme in the design of the MBD and in finding the optimum operating conditions is discussed.


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