Three-dimensional multi-field digital twin technology for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Bai, Fan; Quan, Hong-Bing; Yin, Ren-Jie; Zhang, Zhuo; Jin, Shu-Qi; He, Pengfei; Ye, Mu; Gong, Xiao-Ming; Tao, Wen-Quan

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119763

Cited by 22 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…An overview can be found in [22][23][24]. In addition, POD-based surrogate models have been successfully applied to the analysis of energy converters [25,26]. Bai et al [25] show that POD in combination with regression splines leads to an accurate model of a PEM fuel cell.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Surrogate Models for Vapour Transport and Distribution in a Hollow Fibre Membrane Humidifier

et al. 2023

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To achieve high efficiency and low degradation of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC), it is necessary to maintain an appropriate level of humidification in the fuel cell membrane. Thus, membrane humidifiers are typically used in PEMFC systems. Parameter studies are important to evaluate membrane humidifiers under various operating conditions to reduce the amount of physical tests. However, simulative studies are computationally expensive when using detailed models. To reduce the computational cost, surrogate models are set up. In our study, a 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a hollow fibre membrane humidifier is presented and validated using measurement data. Based on the results of the validated CFD model, a surrogate model of the humidifier is constructed using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) in combination with different interpolation methods. To evaluate the surrogate models, their results are compared against reference solutions from the CFD model. Our results show that a Halton design combined with a thin-plate-spline interpolation results in the most accurate surrogate humidifier model. Its normalised mean absolute error for 18 test points when predicting the water mass fraction in the membrane humidifier is 0.58%. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the solutions of the POD model can be used to initialise CFD calculations and thus accelerate the calculation of steady state CFD solutions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Surrogate Models for Vapour Transport and Distribution in a Hollow Fibre Membrane Humidifier

et al. 2023

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“…In [114,115], the concept of digital twins has been applied to a fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle to evaluate the impact of auxiliary systems on the driving range and to test different energy management strategies. In [116], a digital twin was used to predict voltage, temperature, and membrane water content for in situ operation control. In [117], a digital twin was used to predict fuel cell degradation and voltage and temperature were considered as the operation parameters to monitor the degradation level.…”

Section: From Dynamic Models To Digital Twinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation Approaches and Validation Issues for Open-Cathode Fuel Cell Systems in Manned and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Donateo

2024

Energies

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Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier in all fields of transportation, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and manned vehicles for urban air mobility (UAM). In these applications, one of the biggest challenges is to overcome the limitations of lithium battery technologies, while keeping the advantage of clean energy, at least in terms of direct emissions. For these reasons, there is an ever-increasing interest in the development, simulation, and testing of propulsion systems adopting air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Fuel cells for aerospace must be designed for power-to-weight maximization. For this reason, auxiliary systems are simplified, and the adoption of air-cooling and passive cooling techniques is favored. However, the performance and dynamic behavior of PEMFCs are affected by the operating conditions, which, in applications like UAVs and UAM, are continuously changing due to the variation of speed and altitude during the flight. This investigation analyzes semi-empirical and control-oriented models of fuel cell systems proposed in the scientific literature. The review addresses the whole fuel cell system, inclusive of the balance of the plant, and introduces the transition from dynamic models to digital twins.

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“…Due to the limitations of experimental methods and technologies, it is difficult to measure the details, such as the GDL porosity and its permeability, the local water content and the current density inside the fuel cell stack. With the development of calculation algorithms and computer technologies, numerical simulation is helpful to analyze complex coupled problems, which are applied to the fuel cell performance parameter matching [26,27].…”

Section: Review Of the Performance Parameters Studies For Prmfcsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Effective Force-Temperature-Humidity Coupled Modeling for PEMFC Performance Parameter Matching by Using CFD and FEA Co-Simulation

Zhang

et al. 2022

Sustainability

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High-performance proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) vehicles are important for realizing carbon neutrality in transportation. However, the optimal power density of the fuel cell performance is difficult to achieve due to the internal complex operating conditions of a fuel cell stack. Moreover, there is a lack of effective models to solve the coupled multi-physical fields (force, temperature and humidity, etc.) in the PEMFC, particularly considering the gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression. Thus, a force-temperature-humidity coupled modeling method is introduced to evaluate the effects of key operating conditions for the fuel cell performance parameter matching. Firstly, the interfacial contact resistance and GDL porosity are obtained by a force-temperature coupled simulation using a finite element analysis (FEA) modeling, then the obtained results are introduced into a temperature-humidity coupled simulation using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. An iteration algorithm is proposed to realize the force-temperature-humidity coupled simulation for the PEMFC performance. The main characteristics of the PEMFC performance parameters are revealed and the optimum matching criteria of the main performance parameters (temperature, stoichiometric ratio and relative humidity) are determined. The presented co-simulation method is significant and effective for realizing the PEMFC performance parameter matching condition, and it provides a design direction for an optimal power density of a fuel cell stack.

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Three-dimensional multi-field digital twin technology for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Cited by 22 publications

References 69 publications

Analysis of Surrogate Models for Vapour Transport and Distribution in a Hollow Fibre Membrane Humidifier

Analysis of Surrogate Models for Vapour Transport and Distribution in a Hollow Fibre Membrane Humidifier

Simulation Approaches and Validation Issues for Open-Cathode Fuel Cell Systems in Manned and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

An Effective Force-Temperature-Humidity Coupled Modeling for PEMFC Performance Parameter Matching by Using CFD and FEA Co-Simulation

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