Title: Parametric study of operational PEM fuel cell using computational simulation, engineering applications of computational fluid mechanics

Authors: Rihab Jaralla; Jun Cao; Tawfiq Jaber

Addresses: Deptartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada ' Deptartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Alhosn University, P.O. Box: 38772, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Abstract: A numerical analysis of complex and coupled processes such as heat and mass transports, reaction kinetics, charge transport and flow has been attempted in this study to develop the performance of the PEM fuel cell. A number of operating and design parameters are examined, including the operating pressure, ambient temperature, relative humidity, the porosity of the gas diffusion layer (GDL), the effective porosity of catalyst layer (CL), the porosity of membrane (M), the proton conductivity and the air inlet velocity at cathode side. The numerically results found that with higher porosities of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and catalyst layers (CLs), the performance of PEM fuel cell improved. In addition, it found that a higher performance can be achieved when fuel cell operated with reasonably higher operating temperature, operating pressure, proton conductivity and ensuring a full hydration of the reactants.

Keywords: proton exchange membrane; PEM; fuel cell model; numerical simulation; a systematic parametric study; operating pressure; ambient temperature; relative humidity; gas diffusion layer porosity; catalyst effective porosity; membrane porosity; proton conductivity; air inlet velocity; higher performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAD.2018.094159

International Journal of Aerodynamics, 2018 Vol.6 No.2/3/4, pp.137 - 175

Received: 15 Apr 2017
Accepted: 16 Nov 2017
Published online: 20 Aug 2018 *

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