Version 1.4 of the FuelCell library comes with many new features and improvements. Highlights include new numerically robust and accurate reaction and reformer models for city gas, longitudinal cell material heat conduction option and mass and atom conservation checkers. The library has also seen several new features and improvements that make the usage more user-friendly and intuitive which makes it easier to get started with the modeling. The parameter user interface including parameter dialogs, diagram layer, examples and documentation has seen a major upgrade including new instruction on connection principles to guide the user to set up robust and efficient models. With the new visualizer components it is also easier to get an overview of the system states including flow, pressure, temperature and composition.

New features

    • New steam reforming reaction model for city gas: FuelCell.Reactions.DynamicCityGasReforming. With this reaction model it is possible to model reactions of heavier hydrocarbon such as Ethane, Propane and Butane (C2H6, C3H8, nC4H10 and iC4H10)
    • New city gas reformer component: FuelCell.Reactors.Reformers.DynamicCityGasReformer. This is a reformer model that is adapted to the new reforming reaction model for city gas.
    • New discretized reaction channel template: FuelCell.Reactors.Templates.DistributedDynamicReactor. This discretized pipe model with an integrated dynamic wall can be used as a base component to model complex customized heat interactions.
    • New discretized reformer component: FuelCell.Reactors.Reformers.DistributedDynamicReformer
    • New sensors that collect mass flow rate, pressure: temperature, specific enthalpy and mass/mole fractions simultaneously. This makes it easier to get a graphical overview of the states of the system which is particularly useful for larger system models.
    • New visualizers to show the flow composition in terms of mass and mole fractions.
    • New option to include heat conduction in the cell material along the flow direction. When activated this option can give more accurate description of the stack temperature distribution at large temperature gradients.
    • New models to check mass conservation of each element. The user can now in a user-friendly way verify that the mass balance is correct.

Improvements

    • Enhanced the robustness of the dynamic (quasi-equilibrium) reaction models
    • Made the calculation of Gibbs energy of reaction independent of the reference temperature chosen in the Medium model
    • Restructured the Burners package and the Reactions package
    • Improved the user interfaces (parameter dialogs, diagram layer and etc.) of the library
    • Added visualizers and summary records in example models for easy access to key variables
    • Added instructions on connection principles for building numerically robust models
    • Improved documetation of various component models
    • Removed obsolete models

Fixed bugs

    • Corrected issues with Gibbs free energy calculation in the simplified SOFC membrane model.

New classes

    • FuelCell.Burners.Interfaces.Burner
    • FuelCell.Internal.Conservation.CheckMassBalanceVolume
    • FuelCell.Internal.Conservation.CheckMassBalanceStack
    • FuelCell.Internal.Conservation.CheckMassBalanceSystem
    • FuelCell.Reactions.Templates.DynamicReactionCityGasBase
    • FuelCell.Reactions.DynamicCityGasReforming
    • FuelCell.Reactors.Templates.DistributedDynamicReactor
    • FuelCell.Reactors.Reformers.DistributedDynamicReformer
    • FuelCell.Reactors.Reformers.DynamicCityGasReformer
    • FuelCell.Reactors.Experiments.TestCityGasReformer
    • FuelCell.Reactors.Experiments.TestDistributedDynamicReformer
    • FuelCell.Sensors.AirCompositionDisplay
    • FuelCell.Sensors.ReformateCompositionDisplay
    • FuelCell.Sensors.ReformateLongCompositionDisplay
    • FuelCell.Sensors.MultiDisplay_phTmdot
    • FuelCell.Sensors.CondensingGasMultiDisplaySensor
    • FuelCell.Sensors.GasMultiDisplaySensor
    • FuelCell.Sensors.WaterMultiDisplaySensor
    • FuelCell.Sensors.Examples.MultiDisplay
    • FuelCell.SubComponents.ComponentSummaries.PEMFCSystemSummary

Conversion of user libraries

Automatic conversion of user libraries from version 1.3.3 is supported using the included conversion script convertFCL_1.3.3_to_1.4.mos located under FuelCell/Resources/Scripts.

Requirements

Fuel Cell Library 1.4 is based on Modelon Base Library 2.5 and Modelica Standard Library 3.2.2.