Rui Quan

A Novel Optimization Method for the Electric Topology of Thermoelectric Modules Used in an Automobile Exhaust Thermoelectric Generator

Based on Bi2Te3 thermoelectric modules, a kind of automobile exhaust thermoelectric generator (AETEG) with a single-column cold-source structure was designed. To enhance its net power and efficiency, the output performance of all the thermoelectric modules was tested with a temperature monitoring unit and voltage monitoring unit, and modeled using a back-propagation (BP) neural network based on various hot-source temperatures, cold-source temperatures, load currents, and contact pressures according to the temperature distribution of the designed heat exchanger and cooling system. Then, their electric topology (series or parallel hybrid) was optimized using a genetic algorithm to achieve the maximum peak power of the AETEG. From the experimental results, compared with when all the thermoelectric modules were connected only in series or parallel at random, it is concluded that the AETEG performance is evidently affected by the electric topology of all the single thermoelectric modules. The optimized AETEG output power is greatly superior to the other two investigated designs, validating the proposed optimized electric topology as both feasible and practical.

Study on the Automobile Exhaust Thermoelectric Generator Test Bench

In order to utilize the exhaust heat of internal combustion engine effectively and enhance its fuel economy, a test bench used in Automobile Exhaust Thermoelectric Generator (AETEG) is designed in this paper, the main controller, temperature monitoring unit and single voltage monitoring unit of the control system are elaborated. Finally, several initial experiment results are provided, it reveals that prolonging the exhaust’s transmission time and path appropriately can help raise the temperature of heat exchanger’s surface and enhance the output performance of AETEG, the method adopted in this paper is feasible and the AETEG test bench designed is practical.

A Thermoelectric Modules Voltage Monitoring System Used in Automobile Exhaust Thermoelectric Generator

According to the requirement of independent voltage monitoring of thermoelectric modules used in Automobile Exhaust Thermoelectric Generator(AETEG) designed by our group, a kind of voltage monitoring system based on master-slave architecture that includes several slave detecting boards and a master detecting board was designed in this paper, the hardware schematic and software flow diagram were provided, the amplifier circuit that could detect negative voltage of thermoelectric modules was designed, and the PC based monitoring interface using VC++ language was developed as well. The practical application results validate that the system designed is sophisticated and steady, it meets the real time voltage monitoring demand of thermoelectric modules and provides convenience for their optimization of electric topology structure in future.

T-S Fuzzy Model-Based Fault Diagnosis of PEM Fuel Cell Engine

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) technology has been greatly promoted in recent years, but the fault diagnosis and predictive maintenance are unneglectable issues in practical work. According to the safety and reliability requirement of 60kW automotive fuel cell engine designed by our group, a fault diagnosis method based on T-S fuzzy model which is tuned and optimized thanks to particle swarm optimization is put forward in this paper. Its inputs include voltage, the lowest single cell voltage, current, temperature and air pressure, by setting the output threshold of T-S fuzzy model at 0.85,when the healthy degree and its variety rate are below 0.85 and 0.05 respectively, the flooding fault is distinguished, if the healthy degree is below 0.85 but its variety rate is above 0.05,drying of the proton membrane is on-line diagnosed successfully, which can provide a guidance to its real-time monitoring and optimized control in future.

Study on online monitoring system of PEMFC resistance based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

The ohmic resistance of Proten Exchange Membrance Fuel Cell(PEMFC)is mostly decided by PEMs water content, which can directly affect the efficiency of electricity generation, so it is very important for the measurement and control of PEMFCs humidity by means of monitoring its internal resistance. However, the internal resistance is hard to measure exactly because of its non-linear and time-varying charateristic. To solve this problem, In this paper we propose a methodology based on Electrochemical Impedence Spectroscopy(EIS) to guide the hardware and software design of online montoring system of PEMFC internal resistance, and the experiment results prove that good effect is achieved by adopting this method.