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The effect of fuel cell operational conditions on the water content distribution in the polymer electrolyte membrane

Tavakoli, B ; Sharif University of Technology | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.05.003
  3. Publisher: 2011
  4. Abstract:
  5. Models play an important role in fuel cell design and development. One of the critical problems to overcome in the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is the water management. In this work a steady state, two-dimensional, isothermal model in a single PEM fuel cell using individual computational fluid dynamics code was presented. Special attention was devoted to the water transport through the membrane which is assumed to be combined effect of diffusion, electro-osmotic drag and convection. The effect of current density variation distribution on the water content (λ) in membrane/electrode assembly (MEA) was determined. In this work the membrane heat conductivity is considered as a function of water content and the effect of temperature distribution in membrane is also analyzed. After that detail distributions of oxygen concentration, water content in membrane, net water flux and different overpotentials were calculated. Our simulation results show the reduction of reactant concentration in flow channels has a significant effect on electrochemical reaction in the gas diffusion and catalyst layer. Different fluxes are compared to investigate the effect of operating condition on the water fluxes in membrane. The amounts of different fluxes are strong function of current density, which is related to external load. The model also can use for simulating different kind of membranes. The model prediction of water content curves are compared with one-dimensional model predictions data reported in the validated open literature and a good compatibility were observed
  6. Keywords:
  7. Modeling ; Water content ; Catalyst layers ; Combined effect ; Computational Fluid Dynamics codes ; Content distribution ; Critical problems ; Density variations ; Electro-osmotic drag ; Electrochemical reactions ; External loads ; Flow channels ; Fuel cell designs ; Gas diffusion ; Good compatibility ; Isothermal models ; Model prediction ; One-dimensional model ; Operating condition ; Operational conditions ; Over potential ; Oxygen concentrations ; PEM fuel cell ; Polymer electrolyte membranes ; Reactant concentrations ; Simulation result ; Steady state ; Water flux ; Water transport ; Membranes ; Polyelectrolytes ; Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) ; Catalyst ; Computational fluid dynamics ; Concentration (composition) ; Electrochemical method ; Electrode ; Electrokinesis ; Fuel cell ; Ion exchange ; Isotherm ; Membrane ; Numerical model ; One-dimensional modeling ; Osmosis ; Oxygen ; Polymer ; Steady-state equilibrium ; Temperature effect ; Two-dimensional modeling
  8. Source: Renewable Energy ; Volume 36, Issue 12 , December , 2011 , Pages 3319-3331 ; 09601481 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148111002060