Modeling and simulation of a novel thermal management strategy and temperature distribution in PEMFC

The thermal management control scheme is essential for ensuring an optimal performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC). An in-depth analysis of the temperature distribution within the fuel cell can provide insights for enhancing thermal management control scheme. This paper initially introduced a novel control technique, called the Integral laser simulator logic controller (ILSL), to control the stack and coolant inlet temperatures in PEMFC. The proposed ILSL controller has been compared with Integral fuzzy control strategy (IFL), PID control strategy (PID) and reinforcement learning based controllers for controlling the PEMFC stack and coolant temperature. The temperature distribution law inside the fuel cell is investigated using a joint simulation of MATLAB/Simulink and Fluent under the three temperature management schemes. The study findings indicate that the temperature control strategy employing the ILSL has several advantages in the temperature control process which include low overshoot, short regulation time, no static error and strong robustness. Based on the temperature distribution analysis, the ILSL controller can effectively prevent the risk of overheating in the high temperature zone and reduce the duration of high temperature.