Fuel cell vehicle with differential pressure flow meter for humidity measurement
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorSeha Son
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fuel cell system includes an air compressor having an inlet fluidly coupled to ambient, a humidifier fluidly coupled to an outlet of the air compressor, a mass airflow sensor disposed downstream of the air compressor and upstream of the humidifier, a fuel cell stack having a cathode inlet fluidly coupled to an outlet of the humidifier, a differential pressure flow sensor disposed downstream of the humidifier and upstream of the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack, and a controller programmed to control at least one of the air compressor and the fuel cell stack in response to humidity of airflow to the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack as indicated by signals from at least the mass airflow sensor and the differential pressure flow sensor.
Claims14
A vehicle comprising:
- a fuel cell stack having a cathode inlet;
- a humidifier having an airflow outlet fluidly coupled to the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack;
- a mass airflow sensor disposed within an intake airflow upstream of the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack and upstream of the airflow outlet of the humidifier;
- a differential pressure airflow sensor positioned between the airflow outlet of the humidifier and the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack;
- and
- a controller programmed to operate at least one of the humidifier and the fuel cell stack in response to relative humidity of intake airflow into the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack, wherein the controller is further programmed to detect the relative humidity of the intake airflow based on (i) a mass flow rate of the intake airflow measured by the mass airflow sensor and (ii) a density of the intake airflow based on a differential pressure signal from the differential pressure airflow sensor.
A fuel cell system comprising:
- an air compressor having an inlet fluidly coupled to ambient;
- a humidifier fluidly coupled to an outlet of the air compressor;
- a mass airflow sensor disposed downstream of the air compressor and upstream of the humidifier;
- a fuel cell stack having a cathode inlet fluidly coupled to an outlet of the humidifier;
- a differential pressure flow sensor disposed downstream of the humidifier and upstream of the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack;
- and
- a controller programmed to control at least one of the air compressor and the fuel cell stack in response to humidity of airflow to the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack as indicated by from at least (i) a mass flow rate of the airflow to the cathode inlet measured by the mass airflow sensor and (ii) a density of the airflow to the cathode inlet based on a differential pressure signal from the differential pressure flow sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.