A novel architecture for enhanced thermal management in fuel cell cooling systems

This study presents a novel decoupled cooling architecture for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), aiming to enhance energy conversion performance through improved thermal management flexibility. Conventional cooling subsystems often exhibit tight coupling between the coolant flowrate and radiator heat dissipation, which can lead to unnecessary energy loss and suboptimal temperature regulation under variable operating conditions. To overcome these limitations, this work introduces an optimized system layout and control strategy that enables independent control of the coolant pump and mixing valve. A GT-SUITE-based simulation model, calibrated and validated using experimental data, is developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed design. The results validate the effectiveness of the proposed decoupled control strategy, demonstrating reduced auxiliary power demand and smoother thermal regulation while maintaining prescribed stack inlet and outlet temperature constraints across a wide range of operating conditions. By alleviating scaling-induced thermal bottlenecks at high power, this work provides a promising pathway toward enhanced thermal controllability and operational adaptability of PEMFC systems through advanced thermal management design.