Computational analysis of transport phenomena through membrane-electrode-assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells

초록

The steady-state and isothermal mathematical modeling of polymer electrolyte fuel cells was conducted based on dissolved fuel and oxidizer transport using computational fluid dynamics technique. The presented model describes gas-and dissolved-phase fuel and oxidizer transport simultaneously in catalyst layers consisting of fluid, ionomer and catalystphase. With the presented model, key transport and electrochemical phenomena inside proton exchange membrane and catalyst layers were investigated to understand the reasons for the local distribution of each phenomenon. The numerical simulation results show that gas/electrode contact area is one of the important reasons for mass transport limitations and it affects the local distribution of key phenomena such as water content, electrolyte-potential and electrode overpotential.