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SPECIAL SECTION ON THE 2ND EUROPEAN FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS CONFERENCE

# Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Design Based on Three-Dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling

[+] Author and Article Information
Stefano Cordiner, Simon Pietro Lanzani

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata,” via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Roma, Italy

Vincenzo Mulone1

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata,” via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Roma, Italymulone@ing.uniroma2.it

Marco Chiapparini, Angelo D’Anzi, Donatella Orsi

Exergy Fuel Cells s.r.l., Sasso Marconi (BO), Italy

1

Corresponding author.

J. Fuel Cell Sci. Technol 6(2), 021310 (Mar 05, 2009) (14 pages) doi:10.1115/1.3080560 History: Received March 07, 2008; Revised June 13, 2008; Published March 05, 2009

## Abstract

An entirely numerical design procedure, based on computational fluid dynamics, is introduced to evaluate the performance of different polymer electrolyte fuel cell layouts and sets of operating conditions for assigned target parameters in terms of performance. The design procedure has been applied to a coflow design, characterized by large active area $(500 cm2)$, moderate temperature $(70°C)$, liquid cooling, and metal supporting. The role of heat transfer between the cell and the cooling system is analyzed to properly address the influence of operating conditions on power density and flooding via a comprehensive parametric analysis.

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## Figures

Figure 1

Schematic of the design tool

Figure 2

(a) Schematic of a detail of a typical PEM fuel cell full 3D computational domain and (b) schematic of the solution of the electrochemical problem

Figure 3

Description of the different regions of the full CFD computational domain

Figure 4

Current density referring to subsets A and B

Figure 5

Current density referring to subsets B and C

Figure 6

Current density referring subsets A and D

Figure 7

Current density referring to subset E

Figure 8

(a) Current density plots on the membrane for cases (left to right) 1d, 4d, and 6d (subset D): ΔTcool,in-out=2°C, high pressure and (b) water vapor molar concentration on the membrane (cathode side) for the same cases.

Figure 9

(a) Current density plots on the membrane for cases (left to right) 1a, 4a, and 6a (subset A): high pressure conditions and (b) water vapor molar concentration on the membrane (cathode side) for the same cases

Figure 10

(a) Current density plots on the membrane for cases (left to right) 1b, 4b, and 6b (subset B): low pressure conditions and (b) water vapor molar concentration on the membrane (cathode side) for the same cases

Figure 11

(a) Current density plots on the membrane for cases (left to right) 1c, 2c, and 4c (subset C): low pressure and cathode high flow rate (λ=3.0) and (b) water vapor molar concentration on the membrane (cathode side) for the same cases

Figure 12

(a) Current density plots on the membrane for cases (left to right) 11e, 6e, and 1e (subset E) and (b) water vapor molar concentration on the membrane (cathode side) for the same cases

Figure 13

(a) Current density plot on the membrane for case 6d and (b) O2 plot on the membrane for the same case

Figure 14

Liquid saturation plots on the GDL for cases (left to right) 1e–3e and 5e–11e

Figure 15

Membrane temperature profile plot for cases (left to right) 1e, 2e, 4e, 6e, 10e, and 11e

Figure 16

Plot of current versus flooding function for all operating condition subsets (A–E)

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