Modeling high pressurized three dimensional polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Abstract

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 1-4 July, 2007.

A fuel cell is an energy conversion device that converts the chemical energy of fuel into electrical energy. Fuel cells operate continuously if they are provided with the reactant gases, not like batteries. Fuel cells can provide power in wide range. Fuel cells are environmentally friendly; the by-product of hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell is water and heat. This paper will show a numerical modeling of high pressurized Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell. Numerical modeling requires understanding the physical principles of fuel cells, fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer in porous media, electrochemical reactions, multiphase flow with phase change, transport of current and potential field in porous media and solid conducting regions, and water transport across the polymer membrane; and this will result in optimal design process. This paper will show fuel cell models that are used in this analysis. Such as; electrochemical model: predicts local current density, voltage distributions. Potential field model: predicts current and voltage in porous and solid conducting regions. Multiphase mixture model: predicts liquid water and gas flow in the porous diffusion layers. Thin film multiphase model: tracks liquid water flow in gas flow passages. The numerical results of the theoretical modelling of high pressurized fuel cells and transport effects of the PEM fuel cells are shown in this paper. Results including contour plot of mass and mole fraction of H2, O2, and H2O across the catalyst layers and the membrane are shown in this paper. As shown in this paper the concentration of the H2, O2, and H2O are clear.