Cooling system and operating method of cooling system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10243225-B2
Application number	US-201615195207-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 9, 2015
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

A cooling system of a vehicle having a fuel cell stack includes a pump for circulating a coolant in a coolant line passing through the fuel cell stack, a heater disposed on the coolant line for heating the coolant by electric power supplied by a drive motor of the vehicle, and a controller for operating the heater by a surplus electric power generated by the drive motor when a heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack is less than a first threshold value and a rotation speed of the pump is above a second threshold value, and for turning off the heater when the heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack is less than the first threshold value and the rotation speed of the pump is less than the second threshold value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cooling system of a vehicle having a fuel cell stack, comprising:
a pump for circulating a coolant in a coolant line passing through the fuel cell stack;
a heater disposed on the coolant line for heating the coolant by electric power supplied by a drive motor of the vehicle; and
a controller for operating the heater by a surplus electric power generated by the drive motor when a heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack is less than a first threshold value and a rotation speed of the pump is above a second threshold value, and for turning off the heater when the heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack is less than the first threshold value and the rotation speed of the pump is less than the second threshold value.

2. The cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising a temperature sensor disposed on the coolant line for detecting a coolant temperature of the coolant,
wherein the controller determines, based on the heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack and the coolant temperature, whether a feed-forward control is to be performed, the feed-forward control being a mode in which the rotation speed of the pump is controlled according to the heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack and an ambient temperature.

3. The cooling system of claim 2 , wherein the controller performs the feed-forward control when the heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack is above a third threshold value, and the coolant temperature is above a fourth threshold value.

4. The cooling system of claim 3 , wherein the controller stops the feed-forward control when the heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack becomes lower than the third threshold value, or the coolant temperature becomes lower than the fourth threshold value, during the feed-forward control.

5. The cooling system of claim 4 , wherein the controller maintains a current rotation speed of the pump for a predetermined period after stopping the feed-forward control.

6. The cooling system of claim 5 , wherein the controller lowers the rotation speed of the pump to a predetermined value after the predetermined period.

7. The cooling system of claim 5 , further comprising a pressurizer for pressurizing or depressurizing a coolant operating pressure of the coolant line,
wherein, when the feed-forward control is turned off, the controller operates the pressurizer to increase the coolant operating pressure.

8. An operating method of a cooling system for a vehicle having a fuel cell stack, comprising:
ascertaining a heat generation amount of the fuel cell stack and a coolant temperature in a coolant line passing through the fuel cell stack;
performing a feed-forward control when the heat generation amount and the coolant temperature satisfy a predetermined feed-forward control mode entering condition, the feed-forward control being a mode in which a rotation speed of a pump circulating a coolant through the coolant line is controlled according to the heat generation amount and an ambient temperature;
stopping the feed-forward control when the heat generation amount or the coolant temperature satisfies a predetermined feed-forward control mode release condition during the feed-forward control;
operating a heater by a surplus electric power generated by a drive motor of the vehicle when the heat generation amount is below a first threshold value and the rotation speed is above a second threshold value; and
turning off the heater when the heat generation amount is below the first threshold value and the rotation speed is below the second threshold value.

9. The operating method of claim 8 , wherein, in the step of performing the feed-forward control, the feed-forward control is performed when the heat generation amount is above a third threshold value, and the coolant temperature is above a fourth threshold value.

10. The operating method of claim 9 , wherein, in the step of stopping the feed-forward control, the feed-forward control is stopped when the heat generation amount becomes lower than the third threshold value, or the coolant temperature becomes lower than the fourth threshold value during the feed-forward control.

11. The operating method of claim 8 , further comprising:
maintaining a current rotation speed of the pump for a predetermined period after stopping the feed-forward control; and
lowering the rotation speed of the pump to a predetermined value after the predetermined period.

12. A non-transitory recording medium having instructions which cause a controller to execute the steps of the method of claim 8 .

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Han Su Dong
• Kim Hyung Kook

Classifications

• H01M8/04731

  of other components of a fuel cell or fuel cell stacks · CPC title

• H01M8/04992

  characterised by the implementation of mathematical or computational algorithms, e.g. feedback control loops, fuzzy logic, neural networks or artificial intelligence · CPC title

• H01M8/04037

  Electrical heating · CPC title

• H01M8/04358

  of the coolant · CPC title

• B60L11/1892

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic