Dynamic Modeling of a Parallel-Connected Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack System

Chien-Chang Wu and Tsung-Lin Chen
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Chien-Chang Wu: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan
Tsung-Lin Chen: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: This study proposes novel simulation methods to model the power delivery function of a parallel-connected solid-oxide-fuel-cell stack system. The proposed methods are then used to investigate the possible thermal runaway induced by the performance mismatch between the employed stacks. A challenge in this modeling study is to achieve the same output voltage but different output current for each employed stack. Conventional fuel-cell models cannot be used, because they employ fuel flow rates and stack currents as the input variables. These two variables are unknown in the parallel-connected stack systems. The proposed method solves the aforementioned problems by integrating the fuel supply dynamics with the conventional stack models and then arranging them in a multiple-feedback-loop configuration for conducting simulations. The simulation results indicate that the proposed methods can model the transient response of the parallel-connected stack system. Moreover, for the dynamics of the power distribution, there exists an unstable positive feedback loop between employed stacks when the stack temperatures are low, and a stable negative feedback loop when the stack temperatures are high. A thermal runaway could be initiated when the dynamics of the stack temperature is slower than that of the current distribution.

Keywords: fuel cell stacks; parallel architectures; thermal runaway; distributed power generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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