TY - JOUR
T1 - Thermal management optimization of a thermoelectric-integrated methanol evaporator using a compact CFD modeling approach
AU - Gao, Xin
AU - Chen, Min
AU - Snyder, G. Jeffrey
AU - Andreasen, Søren Juhl
AU - Kær, Søren Knudsen
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Aalborg University and China Scholarship Council. The authors would like to acknowledge the help from Anders Christian Olesen.
PY - 2013/7
Y1 - 2013/7
N2 - To better manage the magnitude and direction of the heat flux in an exchanger-based methanol evaporator of a fuel cell system, thermoelectric (TE) modules can be deployed as TE heat flux regulators (TERs). The performance of the TE-integrated evaporator is strongly influenced by its heat exchange structure. The structure transfers the fuel cell exhaust heat to the evaporation chamber to evaporate the methanol, where TE modules are installed in between to facilitate the heat regulation. In this work, firstly, a numerical study is conducted to determine the working currents and working modes of the TERs under the system working condition fluctuations and during the system cold start. A three-dimensional evaporator model is generated in ANSYS FLUENT® by combining a compact TE model with various heat exchange structure geometries. The compact TE model can dramatically improve the computational efficiency and uses a different material property acquisition method based on module manufacturers' datasheets. Secondly, a simulation study is carried out on the novel evaporator to minimize its thermal resistance and to assess the evaporator pressure drop. The factors studied include the type of fins in the heat exchange structure, the thickness of the fins, the axial conduction penalty, etc. Results show that the TE-integrated evaporator can work more efficiently and smoothly during both load fluctuations and system cold start, offering superior performance.
AB - To better manage the magnitude and direction of the heat flux in an exchanger-based methanol evaporator of a fuel cell system, thermoelectric (TE) modules can be deployed as TE heat flux regulators (TERs). The performance of the TE-integrated evaporator is strongly influenced by its heat exchange structure. The structure transfers the fuel cell exhaust heat to the evaporation chamber to evaporate the methanol, where TE modules are installed in between to facilitate the heat regulation. In this work, firstly, a numerical study is conducted to determine the working currents and working modes of the TERs under the system working condition fluctuations and during the system cold start. A three-dimensional evaporator model is generated in ANSYS FLUENT® by combining a compact TE model with various heat exchange structure geometries. The compact TE model can dramatically improve the computational efficiency and uses a different material property acquisition method based on module manufacturers' datasheets. Secondly, a simulation study is carried out on the novel evaporator to minimize its thermal resistance and to assess the evaporator pressure drop. The factors studied include the type of fins in the heat exchange structure, the thickness of the fins, the axial conduction penalty, etc. Results show that the TE-integrated evaporator can work more efficiently and smoothly during both load fluctuations and system cold start, offering superior performance.
KW - TE-integrated methanol evaporator
KW - Thermoelectric heat regulator
KW - compact TE model
KW - heat loss
KW - heat regulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84879799928&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84879799928&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11664-013-2514-2
DO - 10.1007/s11664-013-2514-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84879799928
VL - 42
SP - 2035
EP - 2042
JO - Journal of Electronic Materials
JF - Journal of Electronic Materials
SN - 0361-5235
IS - 7
ER -