Abstract
: The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) possesses many advantages for both automotive and stationary application, including high energy efficiency, low operating temperature, zero emission, and so on. Aside from the fact that great improvement should be made on its key materials, i.e., the ORR electrocatalysts and proton exchange membrane, it is believed that the PEM fuel cell performance is greatly affected by the operating temperature, gas inlet humidity as well as the flow pattern, and so on [1,2]. Thus, in this work, a 3D steady state model is established to investigate detailedly the effects of the flow pattern (co-flow and counter-flow), the anode and cathode gas inlet relative humidity (RH) on the cell performance. The governing equations of the 3D model result from careful analysis on the electro-chemical reactions, current conservation, membrane proton migration, membrane water transport and water-vapor phase transition. The membrane water transport takes into accounts the electro-osmatic drag and water back diffusion, and the conservation of momentum, species and energy is applied to all components of the PEM fuel cell. Experimental validation is also performed and fits very well with the simulation. Figure 1 shows the current density distribution for different flow patterns: (a), co-flow and (b), counter-flow. The corresponding achievement will offer an efficient guide on the design and performance optimization of PEMFC. Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21373135 and 21533005) and Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China ( Grant No. 413064). References K. Dannenberg, P. Ekdunge, G. Lindbergh, Mathematical model of the PEMFC, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 2000, 30: 1377-1387. S.H. Ge, B.L. Yi, A mathematical model for PEMFC in different flow modes, Journal of power sources, 2003, 124: 1-11. Figure 1
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