Computational Fluid Dynamics Study on the High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Abstract

A two-dimensional non-isothermal steady state numerical model for high temperature polymer exchange membrane fuel cell based on Nafion212/SiO2 composite membrane was developed. Finite element method was used to solve electrochemical kinetics coupled with multi-component transport, flow, charge balance and energy conservation. The model-predicted fuel cell polarization curve was compared with published experimental result and a good agreement was found. The distributions of species and temperature in the fuel cell were predicted and the effects of the operational pressure and the porosity of gas diffusion layer on the performance of high temperature polymer exchange membrane were evaluated. A temperature rise of 5.8K was deserved when the operational pressure was 2atm, cathode relative humidity 59% and current density 500mA cm-2. The increasing of the operational pressure and the porosity of gas diffusion layer were found to be beneficial to the fuel cell performance.