Modelling of heat, mass and charge transfer in a PEMFC single cell

The aim of this study is the understanding of the main phenomena governing fuel cell performances. We present a fuel cell model that takes into account gas diffusion in the porous electrodes, water diffusion and electro-osmotic transport through the polymeric membrane, and heat transfer in both the Membrane Electrodes Assembly (MEA) and bipolar plates. This model is constructed by combining independent descriptions of heat and mass transfers in the cell with a third description of coupled charge and mass transfers in the electrodes, considered porous. The results show that thermal gradients in the MEA could lead to thermal stresses at high current densities. The feeding gas temperature influence on the cell temperature is also important.