Simulation of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell by using ANSYS Fluent

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are attractive alternative source of electricity. The current study involves the computational fluid dynamics simulations of PEMFC under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions to investigate the performance of fuel cell. Effect of pressure and temperature on fuel cell performance is studied under non-isothermal conditions. PEMFC is modeled at 323 K and 1 atm under isothermal conditions whereas under non-isothermal conditions, the simulation is run on 353 K and 3 atm. The results show that the current density increases with increase in operating pressure of PEMFC and vice-versa with operating temperature.