Thermal and electrochemical analysis of a lithium-ion battery pack modelled in COMSOL Multiphysics
➤
drop in the cell to improve efficiency. For low temperature fuel cells, where
liquid water is present, water management and fouling can also be reduced through simulation. Lueth said: ‘Highly resolved 3D geometric simulations can help explore design and operating considerations to balance required membrane saturation with unwanted flooding. Once established, these models may be used in combination with optimisation tools for efficient design exploration and optimisation.’ Fuel cell manufacturer Plug Power used
soſtware to enhance product performance, reduce costs, and improve the manufacturing and integration processes of its fuel cells in a simulation environment. Te company used Matlab and Simulink to develop and test algorithms, simulate fuel cell systems and components, and streamline the development process. Te work resulted in shorter algorithm
development times for Plug Power, with timings reduced from more than a month using C++ coding to less than a week to develop a pattern recognition algorithm and
36 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
obtain the desired results in Matlab. Process efficiency was also improved and operating expenses reduced.
Driving technology PEMFCs and their fellow low temperature counterparts are widely used in the transport industry, particularly within hybrid vehicles where a battery system is used in conjunction with a fuel cell system to power the vehicle. At the University of Delaware, the Fuel
Cell Hybrid Bus (FCHB) shuttles students and staff across the campus’s six-mile express route. Tere are many advantages to using fuel cells in such public transportation applications. For example, the zero-emission bus is quieter than diesel vehicles. Te hybrid design is also suited to the relatively low speeds and start-and-stop driving carried out on the bus route. Infrastructure costs are also reduced as the bus can be refuelled at a single location. Te FCHB design has been optimised
using Matlab and Simulink by researchers at the University of Delaware. Tey analysed
data from the bus’ on-board sensors to improve the power management and optimise the fuel cell bus design. Te Simulink simulations allowed
researchers to address and answer some key design questions for the vehicle that standard trial-and-error iterations would have proved too expensive to carry out. For example, the effect of doubling or tripling size on the bus’ performance or reducing the weight of the on-board batteries can be simulated. By analysing the results of such simulations, researchers can determine which design is more efficient in terms of both the fuel consumption and amount of stress put on the batteries. Tis then allows the bus manufacturer, Ebus, to improve future designs through these findings. PEMFCs are also commonly used
to power forkliſt trucks. Tey provide significant benefits as they produce no local emissions, when compared with petrol-powered forkliſts, within the indoor environments in which these vehicles operate and can work for eight hours on a single tank of hydrogen, be refuelled in
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