A Comparative Study on the Prediction of Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Water Vapor of Regenerative Hydrogen Pump With Different Turbulence Models

Abstract The flow in a regenerative hydrogen pump used in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system is complex, including velocity mixing, streamline distortion, swirling flow, corner flow, and possible boundary separation. Experimental measurement and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) prediction are the main methods used to evaluate such performance. In this work, regenerative hydrogen designed for fuel cell electric vehicles with an impeller diameter of 91 mm and a shaft speed of 22,000 rpm is tested with a mixture of nitrogen, hydrogen, and water vapor. During the test, the flowrate and shaft speed ranges are 151–881 L/min and 8000–22,000 rpm, respectively. The inlet pressure and temperature are 171 kPa and 66 °C, respectively. Then, the flow is predicted by the k − ε model, the renormalization group (RNG) k − ε model, the explicit algebraic Reynolds stress models (EARSM) and the shear-stress transport (SST) detached eddy simulation (DES) model. The differences between the tested and predicted performances are compared. With these results, the velocity distribution in the side channel, the radial force of the impeller and casting, and the changes in the downstream pressure and velocity are analyzed in consideration of the ability of the turbulence models to simulate each characteristic flow. On this basis, the differences and abilities of the turbulence models for predicting the flow in regenerative hydrogen pumps are summarized.