Integrated modeling and multi-objective optimization of a PEMFC thermal management system for a fuel cell electric bus

A proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is the main power source of fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs), and its stable operation is critically dependent on thermal management system (TMS) performance. This study develops an integrated PEMFC–TMS model that includes the coolant pump, fin–tube radiator, heat exchangers, and fuel cell stack, enabling system-level evaluation of thermal and hydraulic behavior. Radiator performance was examined at the component level using the heat transfer search (HTS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms, with four objectives: effectiveness, total annualized cost, total weight, and entropy generation. The optimization captured trade-offs among these objectives, and HTS demonstrated superior optimization performance compared to PSO. The optimization framework was then extended from component-level to system-level analysis, where radiator geometr…