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Investigation and Modeling of Polymer Electrolyte Membranes in PEM Fuel Cells

Tavakoli Mehrabadi, Bahareh Alsadat | 2010

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 41074 (46)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Energy Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Roshandel, Ramin
  7. Abstract:
  8. Fuel cells convert the chemical energy of hydrogen and oxygen directly into the electricity. Their high efficiency and low emissions have made them a prime candidate for powering the next generation electric vehicles. Polymer electrolyte membrane is a key component of the PEM fuel cells. One of the critical problems to overcome in some PEM fuel cells is the water management because If there is not enough water, the membrane becomes dehydrated which leads to a rapid increase in ohmic resistance. On the other hand, if too much water is present, flooding may occur resulting in the pores of the gas diffusion filled by water and the available passage for reactant gases is decreased. In this work a steady state, two dimensional, isothermal model in a PEM fuel cell using individual computational fluid dynamics code was presented. The model was developed to improve fundamental understanding of transport phenomena in membrane and to investigate the impact of various operation parameters on performance. Different membranes are compared to investigate the effect of operating conditions on the polarization curve of fuel cell. The model predicts that the amounts of different fluxes of water are strong function of current density, which is related to external load. And finally the operating temperature, cost analysis and conductivity of different membrane are compared for choosing the best membrane in fuel cell applications
  9. Keywords:
  10. Fuel Cell ; Polymer Membrane ; Modeling ; Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) ; Polarization Curve

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