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TITLE AND SUBTITLE:
Fuel Cell Thermal Management Through Conductive Cooling Plates
AUTHOR(S):
Colozza, Anthony, J.; Burke, Kenneth, A.
REPORT DATE:
2008-05-01
FUNDING NUMBERS:
WBS 038957.04.02.03.01
PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES):
National Aeronautics and Space Administration John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field Cleveland, Ohio 44135-3191
PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER:
E-16392
SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES):
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Washington, DC 20546-0001
REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED:
Technical Memorandum
SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY REPORT NUMBER:
NASA/TM-2008-215149
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES:
ABSTRACT:
An analysis was performed to evaluate the concept of utilizing conductive cooling plates to remove heat from a fuel cell stack, as opposed to a conventional internal cooling loop. The potential advantages of this type of cooling system are reduced stack complexity and weight and increased reliability through the reduction of the number of internal fluid seals. The conductive cooling plates would extract heat from the stack transferring it to an external coolant loop. The analysis was performed to determine the required thickness of these plates. The analysis was based on an energy balance between the thermal energy produced within the stack and the heat removal from the cooling plates. To accomplish the energy balance, the heat flow into and along the plates to the cooling fluid was modeled. Results were generated for various numbers of cells being cooled by a single cooling plate. The results provided cooling plate thickness, mass, and operating temperature of the plates. It was determined that utilizing high-conductivity pyrolitic graphite cooling plates can provide a specific cooling capacity (W/kg) equivalent to or potentially greater than a conventional internal cooling loop system.
SUBJECT TERMS:
Hydrogen fuels; Electrolysis; Hydrogen production; Windpower utilization; Solar arrays; Solar energy conversion
NUMBER OF PAGES:
49
PDF AVAILABLE FROM URL:
2008/TM-2008-215149.pdf ( 2749 KB )
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