Modeling and Simulation of Cooling System for Fuel Cell Vehicle

• Main Author: Swedenborg, Samuel
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Elektricitetslära 2017
• Subjects: Cooling system; fuel cells; fuel cell vehicles; Energy Systems; Energisystem
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-326070

This report is the result of a master’s thesis project which covers the cooling system in Volvo Cars’ fuel cell test vehicle. The purpose is to investigate if the existing cooling system in the fuel cell test vehicle works with the current fuel cell system of the vehicle, in terms of sufficient heat rejection and thus sustaining acceptable temperature levels for the fuel cell system. The project also aims to investigate if it is possible to implement a more powerful fuel cell system in the vehicle and keep the existing cooling system, with only a few necessary modifications. If improvements in the cooling system are needed, the goal is to suggest improvements on how a suitable cooling system can be accomplished. This was carried out by modeling the cooling system in the simulation software GT-Suite. Then both steady state and transient simulations were performed. It was found that the cooling system is capable of providing sufficient heat rejection for the current fuel cell system, even at demanding driving conditions up to ambient temperatures of at least 45°C. Further, for the more powerful fuel cell system the cooling system can only sustain sufficient heat rejection for less demanding driving conditions, hence it was concluded that improvements were needed. The following improvements are suggested: Increase air mass flow rate through the radiator, increase pump performance and remove the heat exchanger in the cooling system. If these improvements were combined it was found that the cooling system could sustain sufficient heat rejection, for the more powerful fuel cell system, up to the ambient temperature of 32°C.