Design of an optical thermal sensor for proton exchange membrane fuel cell temperature measurement using phosphor thermometry

An experimental investigation of temperature distribution and flooding phenomena of cathode flow fields in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell

“…Infra-red thermal imaging techniques [18] are frequently used with the advantages of providing temperature distribution of the whole surface. Also, there are other non-conventional methods such as optical fiber temperature sensors [19], in-fiber Bragg grating sensors [20], band-gap sensors [21], and tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy [22].…”

In situ measurement of temperature distribution within a single polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

“…For example, the temperature difference between gas channels of anode and cathode is about 3e4 C [54]; At the cathode side: about 3 C at moderate currents and 2 C at high currents among GDL surface is found in [57]; While at the anode side: 8 C of temperature difference exists in the surface of MEA after 60 s-runnig and 4.5e6 C during 1800 s-testing [49], and 4 C among five measure points on the surface of GDL [54]; Fuel cells with different operation controls and parts designs are tested in [47,48], and it is reported that all temperature differences are around or within 10 C.…”

“…For example, it is reported in the literature that a PEMFC with a small reaction area and simple flow paths had a thermal time constant of about 900 s [30], and the temperatures on the surface of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) also took about 900 s to become steady [37]. The literature also shows that temperatures could not be steady within 700 s due to the liquid water [57]. All these reference results accord with our observations qualitatively, thus at least in the order of magnitude our results are reasonable.…”

“…Following information is collected from existing literature. For cathode GDL surface temperatures there are logarithmic relations (i.e., temperature-logarithmic of current density) for high humid conditions and exponential ones for low humid conditions [57]; For the membrane temperatures, quadratic relations (i.e., temperature-quadratic of current density) for current densities less than 1 A/cm 2 and asymptotic relations for current densities greater 1 A/cm 2 [25]; For the cathode catalyst temperatures, linear relations with different slop at different gas flow rates are found in [28], while temperatures of all four interfaces are almost second order polynomial of the current density can be found in [11]. In our test data it is found that the temperatures at the back sides of FFPs, both increases with current densities in somewhat quadratic relations.…”

“…In addition, some other unconventional measurements for temperature are attempted to determine local temperature of PEMFCs, such as those methods based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) [50e53], bandgap (BG) sensors [54], in-fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors [55,56] and phosphor thermometry [57].…”