Abstract:
Present paper investigates the influence of inlet air
temperature and relative humidity on performance of a PEM
Fuel Cell stack with maximum power of 175 W. In order to
control the inlet air temperature, a cooling system was designed
and implemented. Changing the inlet air temperature in the
range between 15°C and 25°C, it was experimentally proved
that the lower temperature results in better fuel cell
performance. This dependence was found to be non-linear.
Next step of the research was to take into account the air
humidity and to analyze the cooling effect on membrane
productivity. For this purpose, an air humidifier and a sensor
were installed into the inlet channel. Experiments showed that
the efficiency of the system is increasing with the growing
relative humidity.
CFD simulation of the reactants flow inside the FC stack
was conducted, helping to analyze thermal regime, velocity
distribution and migration of hydrogen ions through the
membrane on a cathode side. Using experimental data, it was
detected that temperature on cathode side exceeds operational
limits already at 120W power load.
Description:
Papers presented to the 12th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Costa de Sol, Spain on 11-13 July 2016.
