CN115962898A - Air tightness testing device and method for fuel cell - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an air tightness testing device and method of a fuel cell, which comprises an air source, an air supply pipe system, a front control pipe system, a testing pipe system, a rear control pipe system and an air inlet pipe system; the air supply system comprises three air supply pipelines which are arranged in parallel, a pressure control valve and an air supply on-off valve are arranged on each air supply pipeline, and the air supply pipelines are connected with an air source; the air inlet pipeline comprises three air inlet pipelines which are respectively communicated with the anode cavity, the cathode cavity and the cooling cavity; the test piping system comprises at least two flow detection pipelines and at least two straight pipelines, wherein a flowmeter is arranged on each flow detection pipeline, and each of the front control piping system and the rear control piping system comprises a plurality of pipelines and communication control valves arranged on the pipelines; the front control pipe system can control the air supply pipeline to be communicated with any straight pipeline or flow detection pipeline, and the rear control pipe system can control the air supply pipeline to be communicated with any straight pipeline or flow detection pipeline.

Description

Air tightness testing device and method for fuel cell

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of fuel cells, in particular to a device and a method for testing air tightness of a fuel cell.

Background

Fuel cell vehicles have begun many exemplary applications in the commercial vehicle field due to the advantages of short hydrogenation time, long driving distance, no pollution, etc. At the same time, some domestic companies have begun laying out mass production lines for fuel cells, which exposes some problems to urgent improvement. The fuel cell can not be separated from the air-tight instrument all the time in the development and production processes, the change of the tightness of the electric pile along with the time and the test condition is obtained in the development process, and the change of the internal leakage can identify the characteristics of the membrane and the like. In the production process, air tightness is an important index for evaluating whether the electric pile assembly is qualified, and is also the basis of other tests. The fuel cell gas tightness instrument is an indispensable device for the fuel cell.

The existing airtight instrument has the following defects: the test time is long, the range setting cannot take into account different numbers of the galvanic piles, the influence factors of multiple airtight disqualification which simultaneously appear cannot be rapidly identified, and the decoupling of external leakage and internal leakage under different pressures of three decoupling cavities cannot be decoupled.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, the technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for testing air tightness of a fuel cell, which are flexible to use, can implement multiple measurements of three chambers of a stack, can perform external leakage and internal leakage tests on an anode chamber, a cathode chamber and a cooling chamber of the stack by a front method and a rear method, can implement single chamber test or synchronous test of multiple chambers, and improve the efficiency of air tightness test.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an air tightness testing device for a fuel cell, which is used for performing air tightness testing on three chambers, namely an anode chamber, a cathode chamber and a cooling chamber of a stack, and comprises an air source, an air supply pipe system, a front control pipe system, a testing pipe system, a rear control pipe system and an air inlet pipe system; the air supply system comprises three air supply pipelines which are arranged in parallel, a pressure control valve and an air supply on-off valve are arranged on the air supply pipelines, and the air supply pipelines are connected with an air source; the air inlet pipeline comprises three air inlet pipelines which are respectively communicated with the anode cavity, the cathode cavity and the cooling cavity; the test piping system comprises at least two flow detection pipelines and at least two straight pipelines, wherein a flowmeter is arranged on each flow detection pipeline, and each of the front control piping system and the rear control piping system comprises a plurality of pipelines and communication control valves arranged on the pipelines; the front control pipe system is connected with the air supply pipe system and the testing pipe system and can control the air supply pipe system to be communicated with any straight-through pipe or flow detection pipe, and the rear control pipe system is connected with the air supply pipe system and the testing pipe system and can control the air supply pipe system to be communicated with any straight-through pipe or flow detection pipe; the gas that the air supply provided can inflate the three cavity of galvanic pile through air supply piping, preceding control piping, test piping, back control piping and intake pipe system in proper order.

Furthermore, the number of the flow detection pipelines in the test pipeline system is four or more, and the measurement ranges of the flow meters in different flow detection pipelines are different.

Further, the device also comprises a control system, wherein the gas supply on-off valve and the communication control valve are electromagnetic valves and are connected with the control system, and the control system is also connected with the pressure control valve and the flow meter.

Further, the control system includes an operation display.

Further, a pressure tester is arranged on the air supply pipeline.

Furthermore, a pressure relief valve is arranged on the air inlet pipeline.

The invention also provides an airtight test method of the fuel cell, which is used for carrying out airtight test on three chambers, namely an anode chamber, a cathode chamber and a cooling chamber of a galvanic pile and is carried out by adopting the airtight test device, wherein the airtight test method comprises one or more of the following test contents:

A. the single-cavity internal leakage test of the front method is used for measuring the leakage condition of a single cavity in a galvanic pile, and comprises the following steps:

a1, adjusting communication control valves in a front control pipe system and a rear control pipe system to enable air inlet pipelines connected with chambers to be tested to be independently communicated with an air supply pipeline through a flow detection pipeline, wherein one or two chambers to be tested are communicated with air inlet pipelines of chambers not to be tested through a straight pipeline, and air supply of the three chambers is independent;

a2, opening gas supply on-off valves on the three gas supply pipelines to respectively inflate the three chambers, and stabilizing the inflation pressure through a pressure control valve, so that the inflation pressure of the gas supply pipeline communicated with the chamber to be tested is the same as and greater than the ambient pressure, and the inflation pressure of the gas supply pipeline communicated with the chamber not to be tested is equal to or greater than the ambient pressure and less than the inflation pressure of the chamber to be tested; the three chambers are inflated independently;

and A3, determining the leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flowmeter on a flow detection pipeline communicated with the chamber to be detected, wherein the leakage condition comprises the outer leakage of the chamber to be detected and the inner leakage between the chamber to be detected and a chamber not to be detected.

B. A front loading leak test for measuring the leak of a single chamber comprising the steps of:

b1, adjusting communication control valves in the front control pipe system and the rear control pipe system, enabling an air inlet pipeline connected with a chamber to be detected to be independently communicated with an air supply pipeline through a flow detection pipeline, and enabling the air inlet pipeline of a chamber to be detected to be independently communicated with the air supply pipeline through a straight pipeline, so that the air supply of each chamber is independent;

b2, opening gas supply on-off valves on the three gas supply pipelines to respectively inflate the three chambers, and stabilizing inflation pressure through a pressure control valve to enable the inflation pressures of the three gas supply pipelines to be the same and to be larger than the ambient pressure; the three chambers are inflated independently;

and B3, determining the leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flowmeter on a flow detection pipeline communicated with the chamber to be detected.

C. And (3) post-method internal leakage test: for testing the internal leakage of one chamber to two other chambers respectively, comprising the following steps:

c1, adjusting communication control valves in the front control pipe system and the rear control pipe system, enabling the air inlet pipeline connected with the chamber to be measured to be independently communicated with an air supply pipeline through a straight pipeline, and enabling the air inlet pipeline of the chamber not to be measured to be independently communicated with an air supply pipeline through a flow detection pipeline, so that the air supply of each chamber is independent;

c2, opening air supply on-off valves on the three air supply pipelines, respectively inflating the three chambers, and stabilizing inflation pressure through a pressure control valve, so that the inflation pressure of the air supply pipeline communicated with the chamber to be tested is the same as and greater than the ambient pressure, and the inflation pressure of the air supply pipeline communicated with the two chambers not to be tested is equal to the ambient pressure; the three chambers are inflated independently;

and C3, determining the internal leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flowmeter on a flow detection pipeline communicated with the chamber not to be detected.

D. And (3) total external leakage test: the method is used for measuring the total leakage of three chambers of the galvanic pile and comprises the following steps:

d1, adjusting a communication control valve in the front control pipe system and the rear control pipe system to enable one air supply pipe to be communicated with one flow detection pipe and enable the flow detection pipe to be communicated with three air supply pipes;

d2, opening a gas supply on-off valve on a gas inlet pipe system communicated with the three chambers, and simultaneously inflating the anode chamber, the cathode chamber and the cooling chamber; stabilizing the inflation pressure through a pressure control valve, wherein the inflation pressure is greater than the test environment pressure;

and D3, determining the total leakage condition through the flowmeter on the flow detection pipeline.

As described above, the air tightness testing device and method according to the present invention have the following advantages:

through the arrangement, the air source, the air supply pipe system, the front control pipe system, the test pipe system, the rear control pipe system and the air inlet pipe system are included, the multi-item measurement of three chambers of the galvanic pile can be realized, the external leakage and the internal leakage of an anode cavity, a cathode cavity and a cooling cavity of the galvanic pile can be tested by the front method and the rear method, the single chamber test or the synchronous test of a plurality of chambers can be realized, the decoupling of the external leakage and the internal leakage under different pressures of three chambers can not be decoupled, the air leakage testing device is suitable for the whole pile and the short pile, and the work which can be realized by two air-tight instruments before is simplified; the total time of the airtight test can be reduced, the cycle time of the airtight test is prolonged, and the beat of the electric pile production line is improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of the air tightness testing device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the air tightness testing device of the present invention for performing a pre-method single-chamber leak test on two chambers.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the air tightness testing device of the present invention for performing a pre-method single-chamber leak test on two other chambers.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the air tightness testing device of the present invention in the front-end leakage test.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the hermetic testing apparatus of the present invention performing a post-process leak test.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the overall leakage test performed by the air tightness testing device of the present invention.

Description of the element reference numerals

1 electric pile

11 anode chamber

12 cathode chamber

13 Cooling chamber

2 gas supply pipe system

21 air supply pipeline

22 pressure control valve

23 air supply on-off valve

24 pressure tester

3 front control piping system

4 test piping system

41 straight-through pipeline

42 flow detection pipeline

43 flow meter

44 on-off control valve

5 post-control piping system

6 air inlet pipe system

61 air inlet pipeline

7 gas source main pipe

8 communication control valve

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present invention is provided for illustrative purposes, and other advantages and effects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the present disclosure.

It should be understood that the structures, proportions, and dimensions shown in the drawings and described herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, which is defined by the claims, but rather by the claims. In addition, the terms such as "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "middle", etc. used in the present specification are for convenience of description, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and the relative relationship between the terms and the terms may be changed or adjusted without substantial technical change.

Referring to fig. 1 to 6, the present invention provides a fuel cell gas tightness testing apparatus for gas tightness testing of three chambers of an anode chamber 11, a cathode chamber 12 and a cooling chamber 13 of a stack 1, which generally includes an outer leak of a single chamber, an inner leak between chambers, and a total outer leak of the three chambers.

The air tightness testing device comprises an air source, an air supply pipe system 2, a front control pipe system 3, a testing pipe system 4, a rear control pipe system 5 and an air supply pipe system 6; the air supply system 2 comprises three air supply pipelines 21 which are arranged in parallel, a pressure control valve 22 and an air supply on-off valve 23 are arranged on the air supply pipelines 21, and the air supply pipelines 21 are connected with an air source; the air inlet pipeline 6 comprises three air inlet pipelines 61, and the three air inlet pipelines 61 are respectively communicated with the anode cavity 11, the cathode cavity 12 and the cooling cavity 13; the testing pipe system 4 comprises at least two flow detection pipelines 42 and at least two straight-through pipelines 41, wherein the flow detection pipelines 42 are provided with flowmeters 43, and the front control pipe system 3 and the rear control pipe system 5 both comprise a plurality of pipelines and communication control valves 8 arranged on the pipelines; the front control pipe system 3 is connected with the air supply pipe system 2 and the testing pipe system 4 and can control the air supply pipe 21 to be communicated with any straight-through pipe 41 or flow detection pipe 42, and the rear control pipe system 5 is connected with the air inlet pipe system 6 and the testing pipe system 4 and can control the air inlet pipe 61 to be communicated with any straight-through pipe 41 or flow detection pipe 42; the gas provided by the gas source can sequentially pass through the gas supply pipe system 2, the front control pipe system 3, the test pipe system 4, the rear control pipe system 5 and the gas inlet pipe system 6 to inflate the three chambers of the galvanic pile 1. The flow meter 43 can test either a positive flow or a negative flow. Preferably, on-off control valves 44 are disposed on the through pipeline 41 and the flow detection pipeline 42, so as to facilitate independent on-off control of the through pipeline 41 and the flow detection pipeline 42, and avoid mutual influence.

The invention relates to an airtight testing device which can carry out a plurality of tests on a galvanic pile 1 and can adopt a front-mounted method or a rear-mounted method to carry out item measurement such as external leakage, internal leakage and total external leakage on three chambers of the galvanic pile 1, and the testing method comprises the following contents: the method comprises the following steps of A front-mounted single-cavity leakage test, B front-mounted external leakage test, C rear-mounted internal leakage test and D total external leakage test.

A. Front-mounted single-cavity internal leakage test: referring to fig. 2 and 3, the method for measuring the leakage of a single chamber in the stack 1 comprises the following steps:

a1, adjusting a communication control valve 8 in a front control pipe system 3 and a rear control pipe system 5, so that an air inlet pipeline 61 connected with a chamber to be measured is independently communicated with an air supply pipeline 21 through a flow detection pipeline 42, and a formed channel (a part extending from the channel of the air supply pipeline 21 to the chamber to be measured) can be called a working inflation channel, wherein one or two chambers to be measured are communicated with the air inlet pipeline 61 of a chamber to be measured and an air supply pipeline 21 through a straight-through pipeline 41, the formed channel can be called a working inflation channel, the working inflation channel is used for gas circulation of a gas source to the chambers, and the working inflation channels of the three chambers are kept independent to ensure that the gas supply of the three chambers is independent. Specifically, referring to fig. 2, with the cathode chamber 12 and the anode chamber 11 as chambers to be measured, and the cooling chamber 13 as a chamber not to be measured, during operation, the on-off control valves 44 on the flow detection line 42 and the through line 41, which are communicated with the three chambers, should be opened, while the on-off control valves 44 on the remaining flow detection lines 42 and the through line 41 (if any) can be kept closed, so as to ensure that the working gas charging channels of each chamber can be kept independent and will not affect each other.

A2, opening air supply on-off valves 23 on the three air supply pipelines 21, respectively inflating the three chambers, and stabilizing inflation pressure through a pressure control valve 22, so that the inflation pressure of the air supply pipeline 21 communicated with the chamber to be tested is the same as and greater than ambient pressure, and the inflation pressure of the air supply pipeline 21 communicated with the chamber not to be tested is greater than or equal to ambient pressure, or greater than ambient pressure and less than the inflation pressure of the chamber to be tested; the three chambers are inflated independently. Specifically, with reference to fig. 2, the charge pressure of the anode chamber 11 and the cathode chamber 12 is set at 100kpa g (gauge pressure, relative to ambient pressure), while the charge pressure of the cooling chamber 13 is set at 0kpa g, i.e. in correspondence with the ambient pressure of the stack 1, the high pressure charge being shown by a bold piping in fig. 2. At the time of testing, it is necessary for the inflation to be kept in a stable state, and specifically, it can be determined whether the inflation is stable by stabilizing the flow rate variation of the flow meter 43 within a certain specified range after a specified time, for example, by making the flow rate variation every 1min after 3min less than 0.5% RD.

And A3, determining the leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flowmeter 43 on a flow detection pipeline 42 communicated with the chamber to be detected, wherein the leakage condition comprises the outer leakage of the chamber to be detected and the inner leakage between the chamber to be detected and a chamber not to be detected. Specifically, referring to fig. 2, since the pressures in the anode chamber 11 and the cathode chamber 12 are the same, no internal leakage occurs, and the pressure in the cooling chamber 13 is low, if there is an internal leakage between the anode chamber 11 and the cooling chamber 13 and the anode chamber 11 has an external leakage, a gas flow channel is generated in the flow detection pipeline 42 corresponding to the anode chamber 11, and the amount of the gas leaked from the anode chamber 11 can be determined through the reading of the flow meter 43 thereon, so as to determine the leakage condition of the anode chamber 11, where the leakage at this time is the external leakage of the anode chamber 11 itself plus the internal leakage of the anode chamber 11 to the cooling chamber 13. Similarly, the leakage condition of the cathode chamber 12 can be determined by reading the flow meter 43 on the flow detection line 42 corresponding to the cathode chamber 12. At this time, if the leakage of the anode chamber 11 itself and the leakage of the cathode chamber 12 itself are obtained by another test, the leakage of the anode chamber 11 into the cooling chamber 13 and the leakage of the cathode chamber 12 into the cooling chamber 13 are obtained by subtraction. In other embodiments, when the non-to-be-measured chamber is larger than the environmental pressure and smaller than the inflation pressure of the to-be-measured chamber, the non-to-be-measured chamber also has a certain leakage in the measurement process, and the leakage of the to-be-measured chamber is influenced by the leakage of the non-to-be-measured chamber.

For the case that the chamber to be tested is one, for example, if the chamber to be tested is only the anode cavity 11, the testing principle is the same as that in fig. 2, and the obtained leakage condition of the chamber to be tested includes three parts, namely the outer leakage of the anode cavity 11 itself, the inner leakage of the anode cavity 11 to the cooling cavity 13, and the inner leakage of the anode cavity 11 to the cathode cavity 12.

In fig. 2, the testing of the anode cavity 11 and the cathode cavity 12 is completed, and then the cavity to be tested can be switched, and the anode cavity 11 and the cooling cavity 13 are used as the cavity to be tested, as shown in fig. 3, at this time, only the corresponding communication control valve 8 in the front control piping system 3 and the rear control piping system 5 needs to be adjusted, the air inlet piping 61 on the cathode cavity 12 is changed to be communicated with an air supply piping 21 through a straight-through piping 41, and the air inlet piping 61 on the cooling cavity 13 is changed to be communicated with an air supply piping 21 through a flow detection piping 42, so that the external leakage of the anode cavity 11 itself and the internal leakage of the anode cavity 11 to the cathode cavity 11 are obtained, and the external leakage of the cooling cavity 13 itself and the internal leakage of the cooling cavity 13 to the cathode cavity 12 are obtained.

Therefore, through the A preposition method single-cavity leakage test, the leakage of three cavities of the galvanic pile 1 can be completely measured, only a single cavity can be tested at a time, and two cavities can also be tested simultaneously. In this section, the flow meter 43 is referred to as a pre-process measurement because it is located on the high pressure side of the chamber at a line pressure greater than ambient pressure when measuring.

B. External leakage test by a preposed method: referring to fig. 4, for measuring the leakage of a single chamber, comprising the steps of:

b1, adjusting a communication control valve 8 in the front control pipe system 3 and the rear control pipe system 5, enabling an air inlet pipe 61 connected with a chamber to be measured to be independently communicated with an air supply pipe 21 through a flow detection pipe 42, wherein the formed channel can be called a working air inflation channel, the air inlet pipe 61 of the chamber to be measured is independently communicated with the air supply pipe 21 through a straight-through pipe 41, and the formed channel can be called the working air inflation channel, so that the air supply of each chamber is independent. One or two chambers to be tested may be provided, and when the test tube system 4 includes three or more flow detection tubes 42, three chambers to be tested may also be provided, and there is no chamber to be tested. Specifically, referring to fig. 4, taking the anode chamber 11 and the cooling chamber 13 as the chambers to be measured as an example, and the cathode chamber 12 as the chamber not to be measured, during operation, the on-off control valves 44 on the flow detection line 42 and the through line 41, which are communicated with the three chambers, should be opened, while the on-off control valves 44 on the remaining flow detection lines 42 and the through line 41 (if any) can be kept closed, so as to ensure that the working gas filling channels of each chamber can be kept independent and will not affect each other.

B2, opening air supply on-off valves 23 on the three air supply pipelines 21, respectively inflating the three chambers, and stabilizing inflation pressure through a pressure control valve 22 to ensure that the inflation pressures of the three air supply pipelines 21 are the same and are greater than the ambient pressure; the three chambers are inflated independently. Specifically, referring to FIG. 4, the inflation pressure is set at 200kpa g, and the high pressure inflation is shown by the line thickening in FIG. 4.

And B3, determining the leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flow meter 43 on a flow detection pipeline 42 communicated with the chamber to be detected. Specifically, referring to fig. 4, since the pressures in the anode chamber 11, the cathode chamber 12 and the cooling chamber 13 are the same, no internal leakage occurs, and when there is an external leakage, gas flow occurs, and the amount of the gas that is reflected as the external leakage by the flow meter 43 on the flow rate detection line 42 corresponding to the three chambers, the external leakage condition of the three chambers is determined by the reading of the corresponding flow meter 43.

Therefore, the leakage condition of each chamber can be obtained through the B preposition method leakage testing part, and the leakage condition of any chamber to the other two chambers can be determined by combining the data of the A preposition method single-chamber leakage testing part. In the present test section, the flow meter 43 is also a pre-process measurement because it is located on the high pressure side of the chamber at a line pressure greater than ambient pressure when measured.

C. And (3) post-method internal leakage test: referring to fig. 5, the method for testing the internal leakage of one chamber to the other two chambers respectively comprises the following steps:

c1, adjusting a communication control valve 8 in the front control pipe system 3 and the rear control pipe system 5, enabling an air inlet pipeline 61 connected with a chamber to be measured to be independently communicated with an air supply pipeline 21 through a straight-through pipeline 41, wherein the formed passage can be called as a working air inflation channel, the air inlet pipeline 61 of a chamber to be measured is independently communicated with the air supply pipeline 21 through a flow detection pipeline 42, the formed passage can be called as the working air inflation channel, the working air inflation channels of the three chambers are independent, and the air supply of each chamber is ensured to be independent. Specifically, referring to fig. 5, taking the cathode chamber 12 as the chamber to be measured as an example, the anode chamber 11 and the cooling chamber 13 are non-chambers to be measured, during operation, the on-off control valves 44 on the flow detection line 42 and the through line 41, which are communicated with the three chambers, should be opened, while the on-off control valves 44 on the remaining flow detection lines 42 and the through line 41 (if any) can be kept closed, so as to ensure that the working gas filling channels of each chamber can be kept independent and will not affect each other.

C2, opening the air supply on-off valves 23 on the three air supply pipelines 21, respectively inflating the three chambers, and stabilizing the inflation pressure through the pressure control valve 22, so that the inflation pressure of the air supply pipeline 21 communicated with the chamber to be measured is the same as and greater than the ambient pressure, and the inflation pressure of the air supply pipeline 21 communicated with the two chambers not to be measured is equal to the ambient pressure; the three chambers are inflated independently. In particular, with reference to fig. 5, the charge pressure of the anode chamber 11 and the cooling chamber 13 is set at 0kpa g, the same as the ambient pressure, while the charge pressure of the cathode chamber 12 is set at 100kpa g, the high pressure charge being shown by the thickening of the piping in fig. 5.

And C3, determining the inner leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flow meter 43 on a flow detection pipeline 42 communicated with the chamber not to be detected. Specifically, referring to fig. 5, since the pressures in the anode chamber 11 and the cooling chamber 13 are consistent with the ambient pressure, the problem of external leakage does not occur, and the pressure in the cathode chamber 12 is greater than the pressure in the anode chamber 11, if there is a leakage between the cathode chamber 12 and the anode chamber 11, there will be a gas entering the anode chamber 11 in the cathode chamber 12, and a gas flow toward the flow meter 43 corresponding to the anode chamber 11 will be generated, and the reading of the flow meter 43 only reflects the amount of gas leaking from the cathode chamber 12 to the anode chamber 11, so that the internal leakage of the cathode chamber 12 to the anode chamber 11 is determined by the reading of the flow meter 43 on the flow detection pipeline 42 corresponding to the anode chamber 11. Similarly, the internal leakage of the cathode chamber 12 into the cooling chamber 13 is determined by the reading of the flow meter 43 on the flow detection line 42 corresponding to the cooling chamber 13.

The internal leakage test of the cathode cavity 12 is given in the example of fig. 5, when the anode cavity 11 or the cooling cavity 13 needs to be tested, the anode cavity 11 or the cooling cavity 13 can be used as a cavity to be tested by adjusting the communication control valve 8 in the front control piping system 3 and the rear control piping system 5, and the operation is flexible and convenient.

In the present test section, since the flow meter 43 is located on the low pressure side of the chamber at the time of measurement, the line pressure at which it is located is the ambient pressure, and therefore it is referred to as a post-process measurement.

D. And (3) total external leakage test: for measuring the total leakage of the three chambers of the stack 1, see fig. 5, comprising the following steps:

d1, adjusting the communication control valve 8 in the front control pipe system 3 and the rear control pipe system 5, enabling one air supply pipe 21 to be communicated with one flow detection pipe 42, and enabling the flow detection pipe 42 to be communicated with the three air inlet pipe systems 6.

D2, opening a gas supply on-off valve 23 on the gas inlet pipe system 6 communicated with the three chambers, simultaneously inflating the anode chamber 11, the cathode chamber 12 and the cooling chamber 13, and stabilizing the inflation pressure through a pressure control valve 22, wherein the inflation pressure is greater than the test environment pressure.

D3, determining the total leakage through the flow meter 43 on the flow detection line 42. Referring to fig. 5, since the pressures in the anode chamber 11, the cathode chamber 12 and the cooling chamber 13 are all the same, the problem of internal leakage will not occur, and therefore when external leakage occurs in the anode chamber 11, the cathode chamber 12 and the cooling chamber 13, gas flow will be generated in the communicated flow rate detection pipeline 42, and therefore, the total external leakage of the three chambers can be determined through the flow meter 43 on the flow rate detection pipeline 42.

In this part of the test, the flowmeter 43 is also a pre-process measurement because it is located on the high pressure side of the chamber where the line pressure is greater than ambient pressure.

In the above-described tests, when the measurement is performed by the reading of the flow meter 43, it is necessary to maintain the stable state of the inflation gas, and specifically, it is possible to determine whether the inflation gas is stable by stabilizing the flow rate variation of the flow meter 43 within a certain specified range after a specified time, for example, after 3min, the flow rate variation per 1min is less than 0.5% rd.

As a preferable design, in this embodiment, referring to fig. 1, the flow rate detection pipelines 42 in the test piping system 4 are four or more, and the measurement ranges of the flow meters 43 in different flow rate detection pipelines 42 are different, so when performing the test, the flow rate detection pipeline 42 of the flow meter 43 with a suitable measurement range can be selected according to the actual situation, and according to the principle of the highest accuracy, for example, when the measured flow rate value of a large flow rate is lower than the effective flow rate, the flow rate is switched to a small flow meter 43. The number of the through pipes 41 may be plural, and the switching can be performed easily.

In the preferred design, referring to fig. 1, the present embodiment further includes a control system, and the gas supply on-off valve 23, the on-off control valve 44 and the communication control valve 8 are all solenoid valves and are connected to the control system, and the control system is also connected to the pressure control valve 22 and the flow meter 43. Thus, the control system can control the automatic switching of the air supply on-off valve 23, the on-off control valve 44, and the communication control valve 8, and can control the automatic adjustment of the pressure control valve 22, thereby realizing the remote automatic control of the test operation. Further, a pressure tester 24 is provided in the air supply line 21, and the pressure tester 24 is preferably a pressure sensor, connected to the control system, and inputs a detection signal to the control system.

Preferably, the control system includes an intelligent operation display, and has a UI interface, and the UI interface has a clear interface operation and display function, can display a pressure curve in the air supply line 21 and a flow curve of the flow meter 43 (corresponding flow names are displayed according to different flow detection lines 42 used during testing), has a function of recording curve data, and facilitates operation and calculation of an operator. The pressure control can be realized through a UI interface, and the pressure can be input through the interface or defined by a corresponding test configuration file to control the communication control valve 8 to carry out pressure setting. Test flow configuration files may be written through the UI, test content defined, tests may be automated according to the test configuration files, or certain single test applications may be defined. The defined test profile, including the line connections at the time of testing and the pressure settings, automatically determines that the inflation is stable (after 3min, every 1min flow change is less than 0.5% RD).

In the present embodiment, referring to fig. 1 as a preferred design, a pressure relief valve (not shown in the drawings) is further disposed on the air inlet pipeline 61, and there are protection of the highest pressure and the differential pressure, so that three chambers in the stack 1 can be protected, and damage to the chambers due to excessive inflation pressure can be avoided. Preferably, the airtightness testing apparatus further includes an instrument for testing the temperature and humidity of the ambient pressure, as reference data for calculation and evaluation of the airtightness of the chamber in the stack 1.

In the present invention, the gas source may be of various types, and specifically, air, nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, or the like may be used. Preferably, a plurality of gas sources with different gases can be provided, the gas supply pipeline 2 is connected with the different gas sources through the gas source manifold 7, during operation, the type of the used test gas can be selected through the UI interface, and the test gas of all the flow meters 43 can be provided, so that the test process is simplified.

In the present invention, the specific arrangement form of the pipes in the front control pipe system 3 and the rear control pipe system 5 and the communication control valve 8 is not limited to the example shown in fig. 1, and may be arranged in other forms as long as the corresponding functions thereof are required, and the air supply pipe 21 can be controlled to communicate with any one of the through pipes 41 or the flow rate detection pipe 42, and the air intake pipe 61 can be controlled to communicate with any one of the through pipes 41 or the flow rate detection pipe 42 by adjusting the corresponding communication control valve 8.

From the above, the air tightness testing device and method for fuel cell of the present invention have the following advantages:

1. the multi-item measurement can be realized, the external leakage and internal leakage tests can be carried out on the anode cavity 11, the cathode cavity 12 and the cooling cavity 13 of the galvanic pile 1 through a front-end method and a rear-end method, the single cavity test or the synchronous tests of a plurality of cavities can be realized, the decoupling of the external leakage and the internal leakage under the three-cavity different pressures can be realized, and the use is flexible.

2. Different flowmeters 43 can be selected according to different actual test conditions, the application range is expanded, the device is suitable for whole piles and short piles with different numbers of pieces, and the work which can be realized by two air tightness instruments before is simplified.

3. Through the UI section, the gas type for testing can be quickly defined through the interface, the testing object is switched, the pressure is set, the front-end measurement and the rear-end measurement are switched, the testing specification is realized, and the stable and adaptive airtight testing scene of various fuel cells can be achieved.

4. Under the range of the adaptive proper gas and flow meter 43, the total time of the airtight test can be reduced, the cycle time of the airtight test is prolonged, and the beat of the production line of the electric pile 1 is increased.

In conclusion, the present invention effectively overcomes various disadvantages of the prior art and has high industrial utilization value.

The foregoing embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and utilities of the present invention and are not intended to limit the invention. Any person skilled in the art can modify or change the above-mentioned embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it is intended that all equivalent modifications or changes which can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and technical spirit of the present invention be covered by the claims of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A fuel cell airtightness testing apparatus for performing airtightness testing on three chambers, namely an anode chamber (11), a cathode chamber (12), and a cooling chamber (13) of a stack (1), characterized in that: comprises a gas source, a gas supply pipe system (2), a front control pipe system (3), a test pipe system (4), a rear control pipe system (5) and a gas inlet pipe system (6); the air supply system (2) comprises three air supply pipelines (21) which are arranged in parallel, a pressure control valve (22) and an air supply on-off valve (23) are arranged on each air supply pipeline (21), and the air supply pipelines (21) are connected with an air source; the air inlet pipeline (6) comprises three air inlet pipelines (61), and the three air inlet pipelines (61) are respectively communicated with the anode cavity (11), the cathode cavity (12) and the cooling cavity (13); the test piping system (4) comprises at least two flow detection pipelines (42) and at least two straight-through pipelines (41), wherein a flowmeter (43) is arranged on each flow detection pipeline (42), and each of the front control piping system (3) and the rear control piping system (5) comprises a plurality of pipelines and communication control valves (8) arranged on the pipelines; the front control piping system (3) is connected with the air supply piping system (2) and the testing piping system (4), can control the air supply pipeline (21) to be communicated with any straight-through pipeline (41) or flow detection pipeline (42), the rear control piping system (5) is connected with the air inlet piping system (6) and the testing piping system (4), and can control the air inlet pipeline (61) to be communicated with any straight-through pipeline (41) or flow detection pipeline (42); the gas provided by the gas source can sequentially pass through the gas supply pipe system (2), the front control pipe system (3), the test pipe system (4), the rear control pipe system (5) and the gas inlet pipe system (6) to inflate three chambers of the galvanic pile (1).

2. The airtightness testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the flow detection pipelines (42) in the test pipeline system (4) are four or more, and the measuring ranges of the flowmeters (43) in different flow detection pipelines (42) are different.

3. The hermetic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the device also comprises a control system, wherein the gas supply on-off valve (23) and the communication control valve (8) are electromagnetic valves and are connected with the control system, and the control system is also connected with the pressure control valve (22) and the flowmeter (43).

4. The hermetic testing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein: the control system includes an operational display.

5. The hermetic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: and a pressure tester (24) is also arranged on the air supply pipeline (21).

6. The airtightness testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: and a pressure release valve is also arranged on the air inlet pipeline (61).

7. A fuel cell gas-tightness testing method for gas-tightness testing of three chambers of an anode chamber (11), a cathode chamber (12) and a cooling chamber (13) of a stack (1), characterized in that: the hermetic test apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the hermetic test method comprises:

A. the single-cavity internal leakage test of the front method is used for measuring the leakage condition of a single cavity in a galvanic pile (1), and comprises the following steps:

a1, adjusting a communication control valve (8) in a front control pipe system (3) and a rear control pipe system (5), so that an air inlet pipeline (61) connected with a chamber to be measured is independently communicated with an air supply pipeline (21) through a flow detection pipeline (42), wherein the number of the chambers to be measured is one or two, the air inlet pipelines (61) of chambers to be measured and chambers to be not measured are independently communicated with the air supply pipeline (21) through a straight pipeline (41), and the air supply of the three chambers is independent;

a2, opening air supply on-off valves (23) on the three air supply pipelines (21), respectively inflating the three chambers, and stabilizing the inflation pressure through a pressure control valve (22) to ensure that the inflation pressure of the air supply pipelines (21) communicated with the chambers to be tested is the same as and greater than the ambient pressure, and the inflation pressure of the air supply pipelines (21) communicated with the chambers not to be tested is equal to the ambient pressure or is greater than the ambient pressure and less than the inflation pressure of the chambers to be tested; the three chambers are inflated independently;

and A3, determining the leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flow meter (43) on a flow detection pipeline (42) communicated with the chamber to be detected, wherein the leakage condition comprises the outer leakage of the chamber to be detected and the inner leakage between the chamber to be detected and a chamber not to be detected.

8. A fuel cell gas-tightness testing method for gas-tightness testing of three chambers of an anode chamber (11), a cathode chamber (12) and a cooling chamber (13) of a stack (1), characterized in that: the airtightness testing apparatus according to claim 1 is employed, the airtightness testing method comprising:

B. the front method leakage test is used for measuring the leakage of a single chamber and comprises the following steps:

b1, adjusting a communication control valve (8) in the front control pipe system (3) and the rear control pipe system (5), enabling an air inlet pipeline (61) connected with a chamber to be measured to be independently communicated with an air supply pipeline (21) through a flow detection pipeline (42), and enabling the air inlet pipeline (61) of a chamber not to be measured to be independently communicated with the air supply pipeline (21) through a straight pipeline (41), so as to ensure that air supply of each chamber is independent;

b2, opening gas supply on-off valves (23) on the three gas supply pipelines (21), respectively inflating the three chambers, and stabilizing inflation pressure through a pressure control valve (22) to enable the inflation pressure of the three gas supply pipelines (21) to be the same and greater than the ambient pressure; the three chambers are inflated independently;

and B3, determining the leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flow meter (43) on a flow detection pipeline (42) communicated with the chamber to be detected.

9. A fuel cell gas-tightness testing method for gas-tightness testing of three chambers of an anode chamber (11), a cathode chamber (12) and a cooling chamber (13) of a stack (1), characterized in that: the use of the hermetic test apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:

C. and (3) post-method internal leakage test: the method is used for testing the internal leakage of one chamber to the other two chambers respectively, and comprises the following steps:

c1, adjusting a communication control valve (8) in the front control piping system (3) and the rear control piping system (5), so that an air inlet pipeline (61) connected with a chamber to be measured is independently communicated with an air supply pipeline (21) through a straight-through pipeline (41), and the air inlet pipeline (61) of a chamber not to be measured is independently communicated with the air supply pipeline (21) through a flow detection pipeline (42), thereby ensuring that air supply of each chamber is independent;

c2, opening air supply on-off valves (23) on the three air supply pipelines (21), respectively inflating the three chambers, and stabilizing inflation pressure through a pressure control valve (22), so that the inflation pressure of the air supply pipelines (21) communicated with the chambers to be measured is the same as and greater than ambient pressure, and the inflation pressure of the air supply pipelines (21) communicated with the two chambers not to be measured is equal to the ambient pressure; the three chambers are inflated independently;

and C3, determining the inner leakage condition of the chamber to be detected through a flow meter (43) on a flow detection pipeline (42) communicated with the chamber not to be detected.

10. A fuel cell gas-tightness testing method for gas-tightness testing of three chambers of an anode chamber (11), a cathode chamber (12) and a cooling chamber (13) of a stack (1), characterized in that: use of the tightness testing device according to claim 1, comprising the following:

D. and (3) total external leakage test: for measuring the total leakage of three chambers of a galvanic pile (1), comprising the following steps:

d1, adjusting a communication control valve (8) in the front control pipe system (3) and the rear control pipe system (5), enabling one air supply pipe (21) to be communicated with one flow detection pipe (42), and enabling the flow detection pipe (42) to be communicated with the three air inlet pipe systems (6);

d2, opening a gas supply on-off valve (23) on a gas inlet pipe system (6) communicated with the three chambers, and simultaneously inflating the anode chamber (11), the cathode chamber (12) and the cooling chamber (13); the inflation pressure is stabilized through a pressure control valve (22), and the inflation pressure is greater than the test environment pressure;

d3, determining the total leakage condition through a flowmeter (43) on the flow detection pipeline (42).

Images