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• Depanment ofM~hanical fnginl'<'rlng. Univf'rsily a/De/awarf'. Newark. Of 19716. United SImes ~Core fuel Cell Ttchnologies.

The constitutive response of perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) membranes based on tensile testing is investigated, and a phenomenological constitutive model for the elastoplastic flow behavior as a function of temperature and humidity is proposed. To this end, the G’Sell–Jonas (1979, “Determination of the Plastic Behavior of Solid Polymers at Constant True Strain Rate,” J. Mater. Sci., 14, pp. 583–591) constitutive model for semicrystalline polymers is extended by incorporating, in addition to temperature, relationships between the material constants of this model and the measured relative humidity. By matching the proposed constitutive model to the experimental stress-strain data, useful material constants are found. Furthermore, correlations between these material constants and Young’s modulus and proportional limit stress are investigated. The influence of material orientation, inherited from processing conditions, on the stress-strain behavior is also studied. The proposed model can be used to approximate the mechanical behavior of PFSA membranes in numerical simulations of a fuel cell operation.

Durability of the proton exchange membranes (PEM) is a major technical barrier to the economic viability of stationary and transportation applications of PEM fuel cells. In order to reach Department of Energy objectives for automotive PEM fuel cells, a design lifetime of 5,000 hours over a wide temperature range is required. Reaching these lifetimes is an extremely challenging technical problem. Though good progress has been made in recent years, there are still issues that need to be addressed to assure successful, economically viable, long-term operation of PEM fuel cells. The lifetime is limited due to gradual degradation of both the electro-chemical and hygro-thermo-mechanical properties of the membranes. Eventually the system fails due to a critical reduction of the voltage or mechanical damage. However, the hygro-thermo-mechanical loading of the membranes and how this effects the lifetime of the fuel cell is not understood. The long-term objective of the research is to establish a fundamental understanding of the mechanical processes in degradation and how they influence the lifetime of PEMs. In this paper, we discuss the finite element models developed to investigate the in-situ stresses in polymer membranes.