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Pressure Effect on the PEMFC Performance
Author(s) -
Lu J. B.,
Wei G. H.,
Zhu F. J.,
Yan X. H.,
Zhang J. L.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
fuel cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1615-6854
pISSN - 1615-6846
DOI - 10.1002/fuce.201800135
Subject(s) - cabin pressurization , electrolyte , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , computational fluid dynamics , materials science , cathode , voltage , membrane , mechanics , composite material , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , electrical engineering , chromatography , electrode , engineering , biochemistry , physics
A three‐dimensional and two‐phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for a single serpentine channel polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) based on ANSYS FLUENT fsimulation software is used to investigate the pressure effects on the PEMFC performance. The model is validated by a series of experiments and the numerical data fit well with the experiment results. The PEMFC performance is improved as the increase in back pressure. The simulation results revealed an important mechanism between pressure and humidity: a high back pressure could lead to a high relative humidity (RH) in cathode channel, which results in a high membrane water content. Based on this mechanism, the voltage increased by pressurization is divided into 2 parts: the voltage increased by reactants' partial pressure (Nernst potential) and the voltage increased by enhanced membrane water content. The comparison showed that the major benefit of pressurization is to keep adequate water in the membrane. The analysis of net power efficiency is also performed and it shows that the back pressure of 50 kPa is enough at low densities (less than 1,000 mA cm −2 ) and the back pressure of 100 kPa is needed at high densities (more than 1,000 mA cm −2 ).