Multi-Variate Optimization of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells in Consideration of Effects of GDL Compression and Intrusion

This study applies, tests, and compares comprehensive surrogate-based optimization techniques to optimize the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Moreover, parametric cases considering four important design variables, i.e., gas diffusion layer thickness ( δ g d l ), channel depth ( d c h ), channel width ( w c h ), and land width ( w l a n d ), are defined using the latin hypercube sampling technique under reasonable constraint conditions. Multidimensional, two-phase PEMFC model simulations are performed to generate the training and test data under these design conditions. Three famous surrogate models, i.e., response surface approximation (RSA), radial basis neural network (RBNN), and kriging (KRG), are employed to construct objective functions for the PEMFC cell voltages operating in the galvanostatic mode, and their accuracies are tested and compared using root mean square error and adjusted R-square. The surrogates are then linked to stochastic optimization algorithms, i.e., genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization, to determine the optimal design points. A comparative study of these surrogates reveals that the KRG model outperforms the RBNN and RSA models in terms of prediction capability. Furthermore, the PEMFC model simulations at the optimal design points clearly demonstrate that performance improvements of around 56–69 mV at 2.0 A cm −2 are achieved with the optimum design values compared to typical PEMFC design conditions.