Analysis of PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) fuel cell cathode two-dimensional modeling

The performance of PEMFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells) with different configuration of gas feeding channels is investigated. Multi-component mixture model is used in order to simulate the two phase flow and transport in cathode gas diffusion layer of PEM fuel cell. This model reduces the numerical simulation complexity by reducing the number of nonlinear governing equations. A wide detailed parametric study is done to investigate different operational parameter such as; pressure difference, operating temperature, different geometrical parameters such as; gas diffusion layer thickness, and various material parameters such as porosity and wettability. Computational simulations have been conducted and the simulation results were compared with the available results in literature and showed very little difference. Results have been presented with different polarization curves, power density and local current density curves and also the plots of saturation level at catalyst layer surface. Furthermore the changes in the place of the interface between single and two phase zones is presented for further understating of the effects of different parameters. This parametric study confirms qualitatively to the validity of the considered model for systematic simulation of the PEM fuel cells. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.