• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.68-75
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• 2010

The one of the major problems in the development of PEMFC was regarding to the assurance of sealing on stack. The failure on the sealing creates the problems of fuel leakage, mixing, internal combustion, damage on parts and can be a direct reason for the degrading the efficiency of fuel cell. This paper studies on the analytical approach for improving the contacting pressure distribution on the gasket at the evaluation on the sealing of fuel cell stack. So, the assembly analysis on multi layered fuel cell stack was performed. The research on the simplification of finite element model was performed for three dimensional analysis at the multi layered state. The improved contact pressure distribution was obtained through the case studies on gasket for better sealing. In addition, the number of the cell was determined for the effective analysis and the structural characteristics were evaluated based on this research.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.230-237
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• 2004

In this paper the effects of inverter ripple currents to the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Stack (PEMFCS) is analyzed by the impedance model. The proposed method employs the frequency analysis technique to derive an equivalent impedance model of the fuel cell stack and the effects of the inverter ripple current are investigated. The calculated results m then verified by means of experiments on commercially available PEMFCSs. The experimental results show that the ripple current can contribute up to 10[%] reduction in the available output power.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.107-118
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• 1999

A 5-kW MCFC stack with $3,000cm^2$ electrode area was tested to investigate cell performance and operation characteristics. The stack performance was evaluated based on electrical output and I-V change. The stack showed high cell performance (7.6 kW) than the design performance and operated for more than 5,760 hours, but a significant temperature gradient inside the stack was observed. A 3-dimensional mathematical model for molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) was developed for the purpose of simulation of stack performance during the operation. The model was solved using PHOENICS, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The simulation result demonstrated a close prediction of the temperature gradient and stack performance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.736-745
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• 2009

Fuel cells convert a fuel together with oxygen in a highly efficient electrochemical reaction to electricity and water. Since the electrochemical reaction in the fuel cell stack dose not generate any noise, Fuel cell systems are expected to operated much quieter than combustion engines. However, the tonal noise and the broad band noise caused by a centrifugal compressor and an electric motor cause which is required to feed the ambient air to the cathode of the fuel cell stack with high pressure. In this study, the multi-camber perforated muffler is used to reduce noise. We propose optimized muffler model using an axiomatic design method that optimizes the parameters of perforated muffler while keeping the volume of muffler minimized.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.554-557
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• 2008

In this study, two types of central flow distributor designs are presented and compared to obtain the optimal compact design which has the least flow resistance and the uniform flow distribution in a vehicular fuel cell stack. For effective and reliable prediction on the thermo-flow characteristics of the reactants flow over the entire fuel cell stack domain, open channel flow in the bipolar plates of the power generating cells were simulated by applying a simplified flow resistance model with an empirical porous concept. A number of case studies were performed to figure out an optimal configuration of a central flow distributor device in terms of the time-dependent thermo-flow behavior and load-dependent flow distribution. The results showed that the stable and load-independent thermo-flow uniformity is very design specific, which is closely associated with the design of central manifolding devices in order to achieve the enhanced volumetric power density and the reliable long-lasting operating of fuel cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.99-102
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• 2006

Optimal flow-field design of bipolar-plates for a commercial class PEM(polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack was carried out on the basis of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation. A three-dimensional CFD model originally developed by Shimpalee et al., has been utilized for performing large-scale simulation of a single fuel cell consisting of bipolar-plates gas diffusion layers, and a membrane-electrode-assembly(MEA). The CFD model is able to predict the current density, pressure drops, gas velocities, vapor and liquid water contents, temperature distributions, etc. inside a single fuel cell. Depending on simulation results from the CFD modeling of a PEM fuel cell, several flow-fields of bipolar-plates were designed and verified. The final design of the bipolar-plate has been chosen from the simulations and experimental tests and showed the best performance as expected from the simulation results under a normal operating condition. Thus, the CFD simulation approach to design the optimal flow-field of the bipolar-plates was successful. The final design was adopted as the best flow-field to build a commercial scale PEM fuel cell stack, the performance of which shows about 42% higher than that of the older bipolar-plate design.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.3140-3141
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• 2008

The output power efficiency of the fuel cell system depends on the demanded current, stack temperature, air excess ratio, hydrogen excess ratio and inlet air humidity. Thus, it is necessary to determine the optimal operation condition for maximum power efficiency. In this paper, we developed a dynamic model of fuel cell system which contains mass flow model, diffusivity gas layer model, membrane hydration and electrochemistry model. In order to determine the maximum output power and minimum use of hydrogen in a certain power condition, response surface methodology (RSM) optimization based on the proposed PEMFC stack model is presented. The results provide an effective method to optimize the operation condition under varied situations.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.551-560
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• 2011

This paper proposes a grid-tied power conditioning system for the fuel cell power generation, which consists of a 2-stage DC-DC converter and a 3-phase PWM inverter. The 2-stage DC-DC converter boosts the fuel cell stack voltage of 26-48V up to 400V, using a hard-switching boost converter and a high-frequency unregulated LLC resonant converter. The operation of the proposed power conditioning system was verified through simulations with PSCAD/EMTDC software. Based on the simulation results, a laboratory experimental set-up was built with a 1.2kW PEM fuel-cell stack to verify the feasibility of hardware implementation. The developed power conditioning system shows a high efficiency of 91%, which is a very positive result for the commercialization.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.07b
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• pp.1179-1180
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• 2006

This paper is aimed at presenting a computational model of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack. The proposed simulation model is simple and at the same time includes all the important characteristics of a fuel cell stack. Close agreement between the simulation, manufacturer and experimental results confirm the validity and usefulness of the proposed FC model. Also, we propose the variable PI control method which has the best of follow efficiency than the PI control method. we confirm a reduced ripple and improved follow efficiencies when the system is applied the DC-DC converter, by simulation using PSIM.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.120-129
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• 1994

A numerical investigation has been carried out for the electrochemical reaction, mass and heat transfer characteristics of the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell(MCFC) stack. The effects of cooling air channel and water gas shift reaction were taken into account. The current density distribution of electrodes, the molecular fractions of reactant gasses and three dimensional temperature distribution can be calculated and shown by several lines of equivalent values. The results have been compared with the existing ones, and reasonable agreement has been obtained. To examine the influence of changing parameters, such as the composition of reactant gases, the target average current density, the utilization of reactant gases, the cooling air inlet temperature and flow rates, the computer simulation has been done. The analysis method and computer program developed in this study will be greatly helpful to design and verify the optimum operating condition of MCFC stack.