Three-dimensional PEM fuel cells modeling using COMSOL multiphysics

Abstract

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) has become one of the most promising energy technologies at the present time. Several factors are driving the growing interest in this technology. Modeling different phenomena occurring in PEMFC plays an important role in this development and performance. The performance of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) depends on the characteristics of the membrane, gas diffusion layer (GDL), catalyst and operating parameters such as operating pressure, cell operation temperature, relative humidity, and mass flow rate of feed gases, channel geometries and design of the stack. Recent studies on the compilation of factors affecting durability and performance of PEMFC indicate that the performance of fuel cell strongly depends on the performance of its membrane. In this paper, a three-dimensional PEM fuel Cell model has been developed and is used to investigate the effects of geometry membrane on cell performance. The numerical results indicated that a thinner membrane corresponds to the higher current density, the hydrogen and oxygen consumption and, accordingly water production is high. Finally, the numerical results of the proposed CFD model are compared with the available experimental data and that represent good agreement.