Simulation of a vehicle equipped with a proton exchange membrane fuel cell and investigating the effect of related parameters

In this paper, while examining the use of fuel cells in vehicles and past research, modeling of vehicles equipped with fuel cells with GT-SUITE software has been performed. In this modeling, various details have been considered and the specifications of a model vehicle have been used. In the following, the effect of effective parameters on the performance of the polymer membrane fuel cell is investigated. The simulation conditions are obtained by considering the existence of battery management system. The obtained results showed that with increasing the number of fuel cells and the surface area of the fuel cells, the output power of the fuel cell increases. Also, according to the simulation performed, with increasing the thickness of the fuel cells, the output power of the fuel cell remains constant. Although some results have been qualitatively predictable, it is important to know the impact of these parameters on the design. Then, the effect of load transfer coefficient and mass transfer coefficient of fuel cell mass was investigated. The results show the sensitivity of each parameter on the performance of the fuel cell and it was found that the effect of the parameters of the number of fuel cells and the surface area of the fuel cells is more pronounced than other parameters. Also, in these simulations the effect of changes made on the average temperature of the fuel cell was evaluated.