PEM fuel cell heat management

Hello,

I am trying to use the detailed version og PEM fuel cell model described at https://it.mathworks.com/help/sps/ref/fuelcell.html. However, I would like to know how the formula of heat dissipated is derived. In my opinion, it is not correct from the dimensional point of view (see R*i term).

Thanks for your help. Best.

Answer 1

[Yifeng Tang]

Looks like it should be instead. Would you agree?

I checked the source code and the power dissipation term is calculated as

Ze_agg*(temperature*DS)+ri*iFC^2+vd^2*Gd; % Heat released in Fuel Cell = h1 + h2 +h3

and Gd = 1/Rd.

Looks like a documentation error. I'll ask the doc team to correct that.

[Yifeng Tang]

BTW: because it's Simscape, if the formula in the .ssc file contains a unit error, the block won't compile :)

[Paolo]

Thank you for your answer. I would need a further clarification (if you can, of course): What does the term "Ze_agg" represents from the physical point of view? Can you suggest me any paper where it is discussed?

Thanks a lot.

[Yifeng Tang]

I don't know much about the electrochemistry unfortunately. I put a snapshot from the Documentation page below, in case it makes sense to you.

The same Doc page provided 4 references at the bottom. But I don't know where to look for this particular equation :(

[Ahmad]

Hi @Yifeng Tang

On scaling down the PEM Fuel Cell Simscape model for a 100 W stack application.

Do you have any guidance on how to adjust the parameterization for such a low-power system—particularly regarding MEA sizing, flow channel dimensions, or thermal scaling?

Has anyone successfully done this with the current Simscape-based Fuel Cell block?