Vapor chamber (VC) embedded in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stacks is an effective approach for thermal management of PEMFC stacks due to high thermal conductivity and temperature uniformity of VC. To quantitatively analyze the effect of VC on the dynamic thermal response of PEMFC stacks, a thermal equivalent circuit model is developed for PEMFC stacks cooled by VC. Each component in the stacks is regarded as a corresponding thermal resistance in the heat transfer process. The heat capacity of components is also applied on the model to couple the dynamic response. A series of key parameters on the thermal performance of the stacks are analyzed. The analysis result shows that the stacks have the fast temperature rise within 60 s of the start-up phase and VC nicely decrease the thermal response time of stacks. Parameters on temperature sensitivity of the stacks are also discussed. Thermal contact resistance and cooling velocity are significant factors on temperature sensitivity of stacks, but the temperature sensitivity becomes lower and even less than 0.01 with the increase of velocity. These works will help to design and optimize the thermal management system of PEMFC stacks.

由于 VC 的高导热性和温度均匀性，嵌入质子交换膜燃料电池 (PEMFC) 堆中的蒸汽室 (VC) 是 PEMFC 堆热管理的有效方法。为了定量分析 VC 对 PEMFC 堆动态热响应的影响，开发了一个由 VC 冷却的 PEMFC 堆的热等效电路模型。堆叠中的每个组件在传热过程中都被视为相应的热阻。组件的热容量也应用于模型以耦合动态响应。分析了一系列影响电堆热性能的关键参数。分析结果表明，电堆在启动阶段的60 s内升温迅速，VC很好地降低了电堆的热响应时间。还讨论了堆栈的温度敏感性参数。接触热阻和冷却速度是影响电堆温度敏感性的重要因素，但随着速度的增加，温度敏感性降低，甚至小于0.01。这些工作将有助于设计和优化 PEMFC 堆的热管理系统。