Design and analysis of the cooling system and thermal management of the power generation system of a lightweight UAV powered by fuel cell

The issue of thermal management in proton exchange membrane fuel cells is a major challenge. On the one hand, a suitable temperature should be provided for electrochemical reactions, and On the other hand, the temperature should not rise to some extent that cause damage to the various parts of the fuel cell. Fuel cell heat management has a significant role in optimizing the performance and life span of PEM fuel cells. In the present research, a cooling system of a 1kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell has been analyzed. Initially, by a mathematical model, the performance of the fuel cell was investigated under different operating conditions, and the amount of air flow required to cool the fuel cell has been calculated. In the following, different geometries are proposed to remove out fans heat from the fuel cell, and the effect of these outlets has been investigated on the heat transfer inside the UAV body. The results show that for all proposed geometries for the outlet, the average external surface temperature of the fuel cell is less than 45 ℃ which satisfies temperature limitation that manufacturer pointed out.