Experimental Study and Simulations of Hydrogen Cooling Effectiveness for Aviation PEM Fuel Cells

Abstract

Abstract Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are seen as of one of many possible future means of driving the change towards a zero-emission society. In a civil aircraft, fuel cell systems can have multiple potential benefits, such as reduced noise, lowered emissions and higher fuel economy. For controlling the fuel cell temperature, thermal management systems are required which can be optimized for aircraft applications regarding their weight and reliability. In this work, a novel, simplified and light-weight thermal management system relying on hydrogen cooling is presented and analysed. To investigate the feasibility, a test rig and a three-dimensional, singular channel model in ANSYS Fluent® were designed. Fuel cell temperature could be maintained within the set threshold in the model and the test rig, thus showing that controlling the fuel cell temperature via hydrogen is a viable alternative thermal management system. Results from the model indicate that both the hydrogen mass flow and hydrogen inlet temperature should be used to control the fuel cell temperature. Furthermore, operating the fuel cell at medium to low current densities is favourable for hydrogen cooling. Future studies will explore the advantages of alternate flow field designs to facilitate thermal management system relying on hydrogen.