The investigation of the melting behaviors of the molten salt at micron scale during the melting process is critical for explaining the solid-liquid phase transition mechanism.In this paper,a novel experimental system...The investigation of the melting behaviors of the molten salt at micron scale during the melting process is critical for explaining the solid-liquid phase transition mechanism.In this paper,a novel experimental system and analysis method were proposed to study the melting process with three heating rates in the range of1-10℃/min of the solar salt at micron scale.The solid-liquid boundary morphology and phase transition kinetics of molten salt particles were focused on.Meanwhile,the correlations between liquid fraction,temperature and time under different heating rates were studied.The solid-liquid boundary morphology was depicted by the visualized experimental set-up,and the instantaneous liquid volume fraction during the non-isothermal phase transition was obtained.Then,the correlation between temperature and liquid volume fraction was proposed to reveal the evolution of the solid-liquid boundary with temperature at different heating rates.Furthermore,the non-isothermal phase transition kinetic equation was established by introducing a constant parameter(V_(a,b)),and more kinetic parameters such as 1g V_(a,b) and-lg V_(a,b)/b were studied.The results showed that the exponent b is not sensitive to the heating rate with a range of 3-5 for solar salt particles.However,the heating rate influences the value of V_(a,b) and presents a positive relationship.Besides,the non-isothermal phase transition kinetic equations at different heating rates in the range of 1-10℃/min can be quickly predicted by the proposed improved experimental test method.This study could fill the research insufficiency and provide significant guidance for future research on the solid-liquid transition mechanism of molten salts at micron scale.展开更多
The Li-ion battery is widely used in power tools, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. In reality, battery thermal management is essential to control the battery temperature within a specific temperature ran...The Li-ion battery is widely used in power tools, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. In reality, battery thermal management is essential to control the battery temperature within a specific temperature range. Although research has shown that preheating the battery at low temperatures on cold days can improve output performance significantly, few efforts have been made to study the preheating method in-depth. As a result, this research proposes two preheating designs for cylindrical batteries with supercooled phase change materials: Single-and dual-phase change material(PCM) designs. A mathematical model is developed to analyze the effect of the PCM layer’s height, thickness, and mass on the preheating effect for seven candidate PCMs with high supercooling degrees. Furthermore, the economic efficiency of the single-PCM design with different PCMs is compared. In addition, the optimal ratio of the PCMs’ height for the dual-PCM design is investigated. Eventually, the improvement of the battery’s output performance is discussed. The results reveal that the proposed designs can effectively preheat the battery with a temperature rise higher than 10°C. The single-PCM design using Li NO3·3H2O shows the best preheating ability, while CH3COONa·3H2O is the most economical. Although the dual-PCM design cannot outperform the single-PCM design, it can preheat the battery twice and show better flexibility. Compared with the battery without preheating, a 26650-format battery with the single-PCM design can prolong the operating time by 38.8 min and save the electric quantity by 2.1 A h;while they are by 42.8 min and 2.3 A h with the dual-PCM design.展开更多
Proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell(PEMEC)is one of the most promising methods to produce hydrogen at high purity and low power consumption.In this study,a three-dimensional non-isothermal model is used to simu...Proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell(PEMEC)is one of the most promising methods to produce hydrogen at high purity and low power consumption.In this study,a three-dimensional non-isothermal model is used to simulate the cell performance of a typical PEMEC based on computational fluid dynamics(CFD)with the finite element method.Then,the model is used to investigate the distributions of current density,species concentration,and temperature at the membrane/catalyst(MEM/CL)interface.Also,the effects of operating conditions and design parameters on the polarization curve,specific electrical energy demand,and electrical cell efficiency are studied.The results show that the maximum distribution of current density,hydrogen concentration,oxygen concentration,and temperature occur beneath the core ribs and increase towards the channel outlet,while the maximum water concentration distribution happens under the channel and decreases towards the channel exit direction.The increase in gas diffusion layer(GDL)thickness reduces the uneven distribution of the contour at the MEM/CL interface.It is also found that increasing the operating temperature from 323 K to 363 K reduces the cell voltage and specific energy demand.The hydrogen ion diffusion degrades with increasing the cathode pressure,which increases the specific energy demand and reduces the electrical cell efficiency.Furthermore,increasing the thickness of the GDL and membrane rises the specific energy demand and lowers the electrical efficiency,but increasing GDL porosity reduces the specific electrical energy demand and improves the electrical cell efficiency;thus using a thin membrane and GDL is recommended.展开更多
A three-dimensional, non-isothermal, two-phase model for a PEM water electrolysis cell(PEMEC) is established in this study.An effective connection between two-phase transport and performance in the PEMECs is built thr...A three-dimensional, non-isothermal, two-phase model for a PEM water electrolysis cell(PEMEC) is established in this study.An effective connection between two-phase transport and performance in the PEMECs is built through coupling the liquid water saturation and temperature in the charge conservation equation. The distributions of liquid water and temperature with different operating(voltage, temperature, inlet velocity) and physical(contact angle, and porosity of anode gas diffusion layer) parameters are examined and discussed in detail. The results show that the water and temperature distributions, which are affected by the operating and physical parameters, have a combined effect on the cell performance. The effects of various parameters on the PEMEC are of interaction and restricted mutually. As the voltage increases, the priority factor caused by the change of inlet water velocity changes from the liquid water saturation increase to the temperature drop in the anode catalyst layer. While the priority influence factor caused by the contact angle and porosity of anode gas diffusion layer is the liquid water saturation. Decreasing the contact angle or/and increasing the porosity can improve the PEMEC performance especially at the high voltage. The results can provide a better understanding of the effect of heat and mass transfer and the foundation for optimization design.展开更多
The flow field structure on the bipolar plate significantly affects the performance of the proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell(PEMEC).This paper proposes a new interdigitated-jet hole flow field(JHFF)design to ...The flow field structure on the bipolar plate significantly affects the performance of the proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell(PEMEC).This paper proposes a new interdigitated-jet hole flow field(JHFF)design to improve the uniformities of liquid saturation,temperature,and current density distributions.The common single-path serpentine flow field(SSFF)and interdigitated flow field(IFF)are used as comparative references to constitute three PEMEC cases.An advanced numerical model has been established to simulate the performance of the PEMEC using CFD software.The results show that,due to the perpendicular mainstream and the pressure difference,the JHFF enhances the mass and heat transfer inside the porous electrode by introducing strong forced convection,which promotes gas removal underneath the ribs and cooling.Compared with the comparative flow fields,the uniformities of liquid saturation,temperature,and current density distributions by using the JHFF at the anode side are increased by 19.1%,53.2%,and 40.4%,respectively.Further,mainly owing to the largest conductive area,the PEMEC with the JHFF has superior polarization performance,which is 8.05%higher than the PEMEC with the SSFF.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51821004 and No. 51876061)。
文摘The investigation of the melting behaviors of the molten salt at micron scale during the melting process is critical for explaining the solid-liquid phase transition mechanism.In this paper,a novel experimental system and analysis method were proposed to study the melting process with three heating rates in the range of1-10℃/min of the solar salt at micron scale.The solid-liquid boundary morphology and phase transition kinetics of molten salt particles were focused on.Meanwhile,the correlations between liquid fraction,temperature and time under different heating rates were studied.The solid-liquid boundary morphology was depicted by the visualized experimental set-up,and the instantaneous liquid volume fraction during the non-isothermal phase transition was obtained.Then,the correlation between temperature and liquid volume fraction was proposed to reveal the evolution of the solid-liquid boundary with temperature at different heating rates.Furthermore,the non-isothermal phase transition kinetic equation was established by introducing a constant parameter(V_(a,b)),and more kinetic parameters such as 1g V_(a,b) and-lg V_(a,b)/b were studied.The results showed that the exponent b is not sensitive to the heating rate with a range of 3-5 for solar salt particles.However,the heating rate influences the value of V_(a,b) and presents a positive relationship.Besides,the non-isothermal phase transition kinetic equations at different heating rates in the range of 1-10℃/min can be quickly predicted by the proposed improved experimental test method.This study could fill the research insufficiency and provide significant guidance for future research on the solid-liquid transition mechanism of molten salts at micron scale.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51821004, 51876061)the Interdisciplinary Innovation Program of North China Electric Power University。
文摘The Li-ion battery is widely used in power tools, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. In reality, battery thermal management is essential to control the battery temperature within a specific temperature range. Although research has shown that preheating the battery at low temperatures on cold days can improve output performance significantly, few efforts have been made to study the preheating method in-depth. As a result, this research proposes two preheating designs for cylindrical batteries with supercooled phase change materials: Single-and dual-phase change material(PCM) designs. A mathematical model is developed to analyze the effect of the PCM layer’s height, thickness, and mass on the preheating effect for seven candidate PCMs with high supercooling degrees. Furthermore, the economic efficiency of the single-PCM design with different PCMs is compared. In addition, the optimal ratio of the PCMs’ height for the dual-PCM design is investigated. Eventually, the improvement of the battery’s output performance is discussed. The results reveal that the proposed designs can effectively preheat the battery with a temperature rise higher than 10°C. The single-PCM design using Li NO3·3H2O shows the best preheating ability, while CH3COONa·3H2O is the most economical. Although the dual-PCM design cannot outperform the single-PCM design, it can preheat the battery twice and show better flexibility. Compared with the battery without preheating, a 26650-format battery with the single-PCM design can prolong the operating time by 38.8 min and save the electric quantity by 2.1 A h;while they are by 42.8 min and 2.3 A h with the dual-PCM design.
基金supported by the Science and Technology Projects of State Grid,State Grid Corporation of China(Research on the key technologies of multi-energy complementary distributed energy system).
文摘Proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell(PEMEC)is one of the most promising methods to produce hydrogen at high purity and low power consumption.In this study,a three-dimensional non-isothermal model is used to simulate the cell performance of a typical PEMEC based on computational fluid dynamics(CFD)with the finite element method.Then,the model is used to investigate the distributions of current density,species concentration,and temperature at the membrane/catalyst(MEM/CL)interface.Also,the effects of operating conditions and design parameters on the polarization curve,specific electrical energy demand,and electrical cell efficiency are studied.The results show that the maximum distribution of current density,hydrogen concentration,oxygen concentration,and temperature occur beneath the core ribs and increase towards the channel outlet,while the maximum water concentration distribution happens under the channel and decreases towards the channel exit direction.The increase in gas diffusion layer(GDL)thickness reduces the uneven distribution of the contour at the MEM/CL interface.It is also found that increasing the operating temperature from 323 K to 363 K reduces the cell voltage and specific energy demand.The hydrogen ion diffusion degrades with increasing the cathode pressure,which increases the specific energy demand and reduces the electrical cell efficiency.Furthermore,increasing the thickness of the GDL and membrane rises the specific energy demand and lowers the electrical efficiency,but increasing GDL porosity reduces the specific electrical energy demand and improves the electrical cell efficiency;thus using a thin membrane and GDL is recommended.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51876061 and 51821004)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2018ZD04)。
文摘A three-dimensional, non-isothermal, two-phase model for a PEM water electrolysis cell(PEMEC) is established in this study.An effective connection between two-phase transport and performance in the PEMECs is built through coupling the liquid water saturation and temperature in the charge conservation equation. The distributions of liquid water and temperature with different operating(voltage, temperature, inlet velocity) and physical(contact angle, and porosity of anode gas diffusion layer) parameters are examined and discussed in detail. The results show that the water and temperature distributions, which are affected by the operating and physical parameters, have a combined effect on the cell performance. The effects of various parameters on the PEMEC are of interaction and restricted mutually. As the voltage increases, the priority factor caused by the change of inlet water velocity changes from the liquid water saturation increase to the temperature drop in the anode catalyst layer. While the priority influence factor caused by the contact angle and porosity of anode gas diffusion layer is the liquid water saturation. Decreasing the contact angle or/and increasing the porosity can improve the PEMEC performance especially at the high voltage. The results can provide a better understanding of the effect of heat and mass transfer and the foundation for optimization design.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.51821004 and 52090062)the research project from China Three Gorges Corporation(Contract No.202003346)。
文摘The flow field structure on the bipolar plate significantly affects the performance of the proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell(PEMEC).This paper proposes a new interdigitated-jet hole flow field(JHFF)design to improve the uniformities of liquid saturation,temperature,and current density distributions.The common single-path serpentine flow field(SSFF)and interdigitated flow field(IFF)are used as comparative references to constitute three PEMEC cases.An advanced numerical model has been established to simulate the performance of the PEMEC using CFD software.The results show that,due to the perpendicular mainstream and the pressure difference,the JHFF enhances the mass and heat transfer inside the porous electrode by introducing strong forced convection,which promotes gas removal underneath the ribs and cooling.Compared with the comparative flow fields,the uniformities of liquid saturation,temperature,and current density distributions by using the JHFF at the anode side are increased by 19.1%,53.2%,and 40.4%,respectively.Further,mainly owing to the largest conductive area,the PEMEC with the JHFF has superior polarization performance,which is 8.05%higher than the PEMEC with the SSFF.
