Numerical Simulation of Dynamic Properties of Thin-Film Temperature Sensor Inside PEMFC

Abstract:

The dynamic properties of thin-film temperature sensors with different sizes are investigated in detail through numerical simulation and system identification modeling. A one-dimensional transient heat transfer model for the sensor is built based on its location in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell （PEMFC）. The dynamic mathematical model， dynamic performance indicators， and dynamic error are obtained by employing COMSOL simulation and the system identification method. Notably， several significant dynamic parameters including working frequency bands， delay time， rise time as well as dynamic error peak， are determined for insulation layers of 1 μm， 2 μm， 3 μm， 5 μm， and 10 μm thick， and a real thin-film sensor is fabricated and calibrated. The results demonstrate that the sensor dynamic performance reduces with the growth of the insulation layer thickness. This paper reports a novel method to identify whether a thermal probe can capture the internal dynamic temperature variety of PEMFC， thus benefiting the further development of thermal probe on the research for PEMFC dynamic temperature variation under transient conditions， which is likely to inspire the sensor design contained physical parameters selection and structural design.