Randomness effect of platinum loading distribution in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell: A numerical simulation

Abstract

The platinum loading is randomly distributed within catalyst layers because of the fabrication way, whereas the platinum loading is considered to follow the homogeneous distribution in the traditional catalyst layer model. The cell performance and heat and species transport laws of the fuel cell with platinum loading random distribution within catalyst layers are not yet clear. Therefore, in this work, a two-dimensional, non-isothermal proton exchange membrane fuel cell model considering the two-phase flow and agglomerate structure of catalyst layers is established to simulate the fuel cell having the catalyst layer where platinum loading is random distribution in a way that is closer to the actual structure. The effect of random distribution of platinum loading on the electrical property, species transfer and temperature distribution is analyzed. Results suggest that the randomness influence needs to be considered when the local distributions of parameters are studied and the research accuracy of parameters is relatively high. In contrast with the homogeneous distribution of platinum loading, the cell performance for the normal random distribution and uniform random distribution cases is reduced. The effects of catalyst loading random patterns on cell performance, species and temperature distributions are different, and the decrease of cell performance for the uniform random distribution case is more obvious. Furthermore, the influence degree of randomness on each parameter is different. The distributions of electrochemical reaction rate, oxygen concentration and temperature display random characteristics, while the liquid water saturation distribution is less influenced by randomness and does not show an obvious random change. These findings can provide a reference for the randomness verification in random simulations and deepen the understanding of species and heat transfer laws in the catalyst layer which is closer to the reality to improve the accuracy of fuel cell simulations.