Parametric Study of Operation and Performance of a PEM Fuel Cell Using Numerical Method

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, I.R. IRAN

2 Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, I.R. IRAN

Abstract

Output characteristics of fuel cells are affected by a large number of parameters such as geometry, dimensions, construction materials and conditions of supplying fluids. In this paper a mathematical model followed by a two-dimensional numerical approach has been presented to study the fuel cell parametrically. Effect of oxygen concentration at gas diffusion layer entrance, temperature and pressure of the fluid in channels and thickness of membrane for various current densities were studied. The results show that increasing pressure and input oxygen concentration as well as decreasing membrane thickness improve power density and raise limiting current density.

Keywords

References

[1] Larminie, J. and Dicks, A., “Fuel Cell Explained”, 2nd Ed., John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex, pp. 1-14, 53-59 (2003).
[2] Evans, J.P., Ellis, M.W., Von Spakovsky, M.R., Nelson, D.J., Experimental Evaluation of the Effect of Inlet Gas Humidification on Fuel Cell Per-formance, M.S. Thesis for Mechanical Engineering in Virginia Polytechnic and State University, (2003).
[3] Bernardi, D.N. and Verbrugge, M.W., Mathematical Model of a Gas Diffusion Electrode Bonded to a Polymer Electrolyte, AIChE J., 37, 1151 (1991).
[4] Chu, H.S., Yeh, C., Chen, F., Effects of Porosity Change of Gas Diffuser on Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, J. of Power Sources, 123, 1 (2003).
[5] Singh, D., Lu, D.M., Djilali, N., A Two-Dimensional Analysis of Mass Transport in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, Int. J. of Engineering Science, 37, 431 (1999).
[6] Kermani, M.J., Stockie, J.M., Gerber, A.G., Condensation in the Cathode of a PEM Fuel Cell, 11th Annual Conference of CFD Society of Canada.
[7] Berning, T., Lu, D.M., Djilali, N., Three-Dimensional Computational Analysis of Transport Phenomena in a PEM Fuel Cell, J. of Power Sources,106, 284 (2002).
[8] Um, S. and Wang, C.Y., Three-Dimensional Analysis of Transport and Electrochemical Reactions in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells, J. Power Sources, 125, 40 (2004).
[9] Meng, H. and Wang, C.Y., Electron Transport in PEFCs, J. of The Electrochemical Society, 151(3), A358 (2004).
[10] Seddiq, M., Khaleghi, H. and Mirzaei, M., Numerical Analysis of Gas Cross-Over through the Membrane in a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, J. Power Sources, 161(1), 371 (2006).
[11] Perry, R.H. and Chilton, C.H., “Chemical Engineers’ Handbook”, Fifth Ed., McGraw-Hill, Tokyo, pp. 3_96-3_98, 3_222-3_235 (1982).
[12] Patankar, S.V., “Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, Hemisphere”, New York, (1980).
[13] Wang, L., Husar, A., Zhou, T., Liu, H., A Parametric Study of PEM Fuel Cell Performances, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 28, 1263 (2003).

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics