Improved hydrogen consumption detection method with flow meter of fuel cell vehicle

With the vigorous development of fuel cell vehicles, the hydrogen consumption in the driving process of fuel cell vehicles has become a major concern of automobile manufacturers and fuel suppliers. However, the measurement accuracy of flow meter in hydrogen medium cannot meet the requirements. In this paper, computational fluid dynamics software is used to simulate the velocity distribution of water and hydrogen in Coriolis flow meter with different mass flow rates without tube vibration. Aiming at the measurement error of Coriolis flow meter, a flow calibration device based on sonic nozzle was designed, and the results of measuring hydrogen mass flow by Coriolis flow meter and thermal flow meter were calibrated. Finally, the accuracy of the calibrated flow meter for measuring hydrogen mass flow under stable and dynamic conditions is tested. The test results show that the accuracy of calibrated Coriolis flow meter for hydrogen mass flow is less than ±1%, which can meet the accuracy requirements of fuel cell vehicle hydrogen consumption measurement. This study provides an important reference for the application of flow meter method in fuel cell vehicle economic evaluation method.