Efficient and reliable performance requires tight control of membrane hydration across various operating conditions
FUEL CELL SIMULATION SOLUTIONS
Combining industry leading productivity tools and collaboration features with advanced multi-physics modeling capabilities GT-SUITE is the ideal platform for the analysis and optimization of fuel cell systems and their components >>
CHALLENGES IN FUEL CELL DEVELOPMENT
Fuel cell development continues to progress with ongoing research and advancements. Researchers are exploring new materials and designs to improve fuel cell efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance their applications in various industries.
Water Management
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Cold Start
Quickly arrive at optimal operating temperature with different strategies
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Transient Reliability
The complete system must respond quickly to power demands, stop/start, acceleration
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Thermal Management
Heat generation causes controls and packaging challenges
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Degradation
Maximize equipment lifetime and study key influences to aging
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Refueling & Hydrogen Infrastructure
Fast, reliable, and safe transportation and fueling
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The Challenge of Complexity
Complex component interactions require holistic system optimization
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GT SOLUTIONS FOR FUEL CELL DEVELOPMENT
- Model flow, mass & heat transfer, and electrochemistry in single object
- Semi-empirical method to model electrochemistry based on polarization curve
- Automatically fit polarization curve coefficients from measured data
- Efficiency losses as a function of temperature, pressure, humidity, and stoichiometry
- Affects heat rejection to coolant – Coolant pump & heat exchanger sizing and temperature control
- Dependence on reactant supply from anode and cathode circuits
- Water Crossover – Affects the water management and humidification of the membrane & used to maintain hydration on the anode side
- Nitrogen Crossover – Increases the amount of inert gases in the anode and decreases the voltage & can build up over time in hydrogen recirculation loop and affect performance of equipment
- Hydrogen/Oxygen Crossover – Parasitic current reduces cell performance
- Phase change within MEA to support vapor, liquid, and ice to capture effects of flooding and freezing
- Water production & reactant consumption is calculated by fuel cell component in GT
- Water crossover plays critical role in cathode and anode humidification
- Condensation can be modeled in the channels and pipes.
- Liquid water separation and purging can be implemented in system models
- Water vapor can be added as part of a humidification strategy
- Gas-to-gas humidifier compound is available for passive humidification
- Redlich-Kwong, Soave-Redlich-Kwong, and Peng-Robinson equation of state options to model real gas properties. NIST REFPROP fluid properties also available in certain configurations
- Joule-Thomson effect captured in hydrogen expansion
- Regulate pressure in hydrogen and air systems
- Control stoichiometric ratio
- Recirculation of hydrogen
- Turbomachinery
- Coolers and Humidifiers
- Model based cathode stoichiometry controller available for easy and robust control of oxygen supply
- GT-SUITE is a multi-physics platform
- The same executable is run whether a fuel cell system model or vehicle model is run
- Integrating different models into a single GT-SUITE model is seamless
- Fuel cell stack directly connects to electrical powertrain and cooling system
GT FUEL CELL SOLUTIONS USE CASES
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