Publication

A multi-timescale modeling methodology for PEMFC performance and durability in a virtual fuel cell car

Journal Article (2015)

Journal

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Pages

16466-16476

Volume

40

Number

46

Doc link

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.09.152

File

Download the digital copy of the doc pdf document

Abstract

The durability of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is governed by a nonlinear cou-pling between system demand, component behavior, and physicochemical degradation mechanisms, occurring on timescales from the sub-second to the thousand-hour. We present a simulation methodol-ogy for assessing performance and durability of a PEMFC under automotive driving cycles. The simu-lation framework consists of (a) a fuel cell car model converting velocity to cell power demand, (b) a 2D multiphysics cell model, (c) a flexible degradation library template that can accommodate physi-cally-based component-wise degradation mechanisms, and (d) a time-upscaling methodology for ex-trapolating degradation during a representative load cycle to multiple cycles. The computational framework describes three different time scales, (1) sub-second timescale of electrochemistry, (2) minute-timescale of driving cycles, and (3) thousand-hour-timescale of cell ageing. We demonstrate an exemplary PEMFC durability analysis due to membrane degradation under a highly transient load-ing of the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC).

Categories

power distribution control.

Scientific reference

M. Mayur, S. Strahl, A.P. Husar and W. Bessler. A multi-timescale modeling methodology for PEMFC performance and durability in a virtual fuel cell car. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 40(46): 16466-16476, 2015.