Studying the effect of material parameters on cell performance of tubular-shaped PEM fuel cell

A full three-dimensional, non-isothermal computational fluid dynamics model of a tubular-shaped proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell has been developed. This comprehensive model accounts for the major transport phenomena in a PEM fuel cell: convective and diffusive heat and mass transfer, electrode kinetics, transport and phase change mechanism of water, and potential fields. The model is shown to be able to understand the many interacting, complex electrochemical, and transport phenomena that cannot be studied experimentally. In addition to the new feature of tubular-shaped geometry of PEM fuel cell, this model is used to study the effects of several material parameters on fuel cell performance. Detailed analyses of the temperature distribution inside the tubular cell under various material properties have been conducted and examined. The analysis helped identifying critical parameters and shed insight into the physical mechanisms leading to a fuel cell performance and durability under various material conditions.