Numerical investigation of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell

In this study, the types and the importance of fuel cells were presented, then basic electro-chemical reactions, flow, heat transfer and mass transfer events, which occur inside the PEM fuel cell, were mathematically modeled. For solving the electro-chemical equations, a Matlab program has been developed. Using this program, effects of temperature and pressure on the cell efficiency were analysed. Afterwards Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, Fluent, was used to solve mass, momentum and heat transport equations. By using FLUENT the effects of temperature, pressure and porosity of gas diffusion layer (GDL) on the cell performance were examined and the results were compared with the ones available in the literature. Oxygen, hydrogen and water vapor concentration distributions, current density magnitude, electrical potential, cellular distribution of temperature, velocity and pressure were also simulated. It was observed that increases in temperature, pressure and GDL porosity lead to an increase in cell voltage and current density.