A Simulation of Two-Phase Flow inside Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1115-1123
Author(s):  
Masakazu Yoneda ◽  
Koshiro Suzuki ◽  
Masato Takimoto
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cells ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte ◽  
Two Phase Flow ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Membrane ◽  
Phase Flow ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Electrolyte Membrane

Three dimensional numerical simulation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 427-451
Author(s):  
Yeping Peng ◽  
Ghasem Bahrami ◽  
Hossein Khodadadi ◽  
Alireza Karimi ◽  
Ahmad Soleimani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cells ◽  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte ◽  
Current Density ◽  
Two Phase Flow ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Membrane ◽  
Phase Flow ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Electrolyte Membrane

Purpose The purpose of this study is simulation of of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells are promising power sources for use in power plants and vehicles. These fuel cells provide a high level of energy efficiency at low temperature without any pollution. The convection inside the cell plays a key role in the electrochemical reactions and the performance of the cell. Accordingly, the transport processes in these cells have been investigated thoroughly in previous studies that also carried out functional modeling. Design/methodology/approach A multi-phase model was used to study the limitations of the reactions and their impact on the performance of the cell. The governing equations (conservation of mass, momentum and particle transport) were solved by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) (ANSYS fluent) using appropriate source terms. The two-phase flow in the fuel cell was simulated three-dimensionally under steady-state conditions. The flow of water inside the cell was also simulated at high-current density. Findings The simulation results suggested that the porosity of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) is one of the most important design parameters with a significant impact on the current density limitation and, consequently, on the cell performance. Originality/value This study was mainly focused on the two-phase analysis of the steady flow in the fuel cell and on investigating the impacts of a two-phase flow on the performance of the cell and also on the flow in the GDL, the membrane and the catalyst layer using the CFD.

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