Implementing Thermal Management Modeling Into SOFC System Level Design

Author(s):  
K. J. Kattke ◽  
R. J. Braun

Effective thermal management is critical to the successful design of small (<10 kW) solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power systems. While separate unit processes occur within each component of the system, external heat transport from/to components must be optimally managed and taken into account in system-level design. In this paper, we present a modeling approach that captures thermal interactions among hot zone components and couples this information with system process design. The resulting thermal model is then applied to a mobile SOFC power system concept in the 1–2 kW range to enable a better understanding of how component heat loss affects process gas temperature and flow requirements throughout the flowsheet. The thermal performance of the system is examined for various thermal management strategies that involve altering the convective and radiative heat transfer in the enclosure. The impact of these measures on internal temperature distributions within the cell-stack is also presented. A comparison with the results from traditional adiabatic, zero-dimensional thermodynamic system modeling reveals that oxidant flow requirements can be overpredicted by as much as 204%, resulting in oversizing of recuperator heat duty by 221%, and that important design constraints, such as the magnitude of the maximum cell temperature gradient within the stack, are underpredicted by over 24%.

Author(s):  
K. J. Kattke ◽  
R. J. Braun

Effective thermal management is critical to the successful design of small (&lt;10 kW) solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power systems. While separate unit processes occur within each component of the system, external heat transport from or to components must be optimally managed and taken into account in system-level design. In this paper, we present a modeling approach that captures thermal interactions among hot zone components and couples this information with system process design. The resulting thermal model is then applied to a mobile SOFC power system concept in the 1–2 kW range to enable a better understanding of how component heat loss affects process gas temperature and flow requirements throughout the flowsheet. The thermal performance of the system is examined for various thermal management strategies that involve altering the convective and radiative heat transfer in the enclosure. The impact of these measures on internal temperature distributions within the cell-stack is also presented. A comparison with results from traditional adiabatic, zero-dimensional thermodynamic system modeling reveals that oxidant flow requirements can be over-predicted by as much as 110% and that important design constraints, such as the magnitude of the maximum cell temperature gradient within the stack, are under-predicted by over 40%.


2012 ◽  
Vol 249-250 ◽  
pp. 1154-1159
Author(s):  
Yu Sheng Liu ◽  
Wen Qiang Yuan

Model based systems engineering (MBSE) is becoming a promising approach for the system-level design of complex mechatronics. And several MBSE tools are developed to conduct system modeling. However, the system design cannot be optimized in current MBSE tools. In this study, an approach is presented to conduct the task. A set of optimization stereotype is defined at first which is used to formalize the optimization model based on the system design model. Then the design parameters and their relationships applied optimization stereotypes are extracted and transferred to construct the tool-dependent optimization model. Finally, the optimization model is solved and the results are given back and then modify the corresponding system model automatically. In this paper, MagicDraw is used to model the whole system whereas Matlab optimizer is used for optimization. The combustion engine is chosen as the example to illustrate the proposed approach.


Author(s):  
Atif M. Aliuddin ◽  
AbdulAziz S. Alhamoud ◽  
Samir Mekid

This paper discusses a system level design and simulation of a portable solar powered classroom for rural areas that are not connected to the national grid. This constitutes a serious handicap to support general public utilities such as lack of proper schools and usual daily utilities. The lack of schools in such areas has lead to a lower level of educational standard as compared to urban schools. These regions are often isolated and far away from any major cities and thus have limited educational resources. Often these areas lack proper teaching facilities, which in turn discourage students from seriously pursuing education. Coincidentally these areas are exposed to a large amount of solar energy over the course of a year. This paper focuses on the utilization of this captured solar energy transformed into electricity to serve all electrical devices that equip a portable solar classroom. The load profile for this classroom was selected based on the power requirements of an average classroom and basic educational technologies. A parametric study was done using software that specializes in simulating renewable energy solutions (HOMER). Various alternatives for the same load profile are compared and a cost analysis and comparison between alternatives is presented. The practicality of the project is evaluated and a suitable Hybrid power system is presented.


Author(s):  
Vinod Chaudhari ◽  
Thomas Moniz ◽  
Chandrakant NaikTari ◽  
Daniel Waslo ◽  
Mohan Kanase

Turbo machinery preliminary design is an iterative process that begins with an initial Cycle design and culminates with a cross-section of an engine that meets performance, weight and cost criteria. There is a need to have an integrated system that can allow designers to work seamlessly with the conceptual design process involving Cycle, aero and mechanical preliminary design methods. This becomes a huge challenge considering the minimal inputs available at the initial design stage, complexities of design requirements and the multi-disciplinary skills required to come up with accurate design concepts that can satisfy aero and mechanical design requirements. Also, it becomes a highly challenging task to assess the impact of design changes on the downstream design phase for realistic trade-offs. This paper focuses on providing an Integrated Design approach called IPD system (Integrated Preliminary Design) to reduce design cycle time (by 50% per design iteration) and improve fidelity of engine cross-sections at the preliminary design stage (weight & cost prediction improvement by 5%). The IPD system smoothly connects different multi-design disciplines including Cycle design, Flowpath design, nacelle aeroline design and system level mechanical and architectural design across all conceptual and preliminary design stages. Apart from system level design, the IPD system helps the designer to create components iteratively and update the system level model accordingly arriving at a solution that meets aero and mechanical design requirements. This design approach also provides a high fidelity system plan to optimize the system level design that can meet performance, weight and cost requirements.


Author(s):  
Ariel Jimenez ◽  
Natalia Morales ◽  
Carlos Paez ◽  
Arturo Fajardo ◽  
Gabriel Perilla

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-62
Author(s):  
Yuki Ando ◽  
Masataka Ogawa ◽  
Yuya Mizoguchi ◽  
Kouta Kumagai ◽  
Miaw Torng-Der ◽  
...  

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