Numerical Analysis on Temperature Distribution in a Single Cell of PEFC Operated at Higher Temperature by1D Heat Transfer Model and 3D Multi-Physics Simulation Model

Abstract

This study is to understand the impact of operating conditions, especially initial operation temperature (T ini ) which is set in a high temperature range, on the temperature profile of the interface between the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and the catalyst layer at the cathode (i.e., the reaction surface) in a single cell of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). A 1D multi-plate heat transfer model based on the temperature data of the separator measured using the thermograph in a power generation experiment was developed to evaluate the reaction surface temperature (T react ). In addition, to validate the proposed heat transfer model, T react obtained from the model was compared with that from the 3D numerical simulation using CFD software COMSOL Multiphysics which solves the continuity equation, Brinkman equation, Maxwell-Stefan equation, Butler-Volmer equation as well as heat transfer equation. As a result, the temperature gap between the results obtained by 1D heat transfer model and those obtained by 3D numerical simulation is below approximately 0.5 K. The simulation results show the change in the molar concentration of O 2 and H 2 O from the inlet to the outlet is more even with the increase in T ini due to the lower performance of O 2 reduction reaction. The change in the current density from the inlet to the outlet is more even with the increase in T ini and the value of current density is smaller with the increase in T ini due to the increase in ohmic over-potential and concentration over-potential. It is revealed that the change in T react from the inlet to the outlet is more even with the increase in T ini irrespective of heat transfer model.

Impact of separator thickness on relationship between temperature distribution and mass & current density distribution in single HT-PEMFC

“…Since we assume the excess amount of gas which is larger than s.r. = 1.0 as the inlet gas flow rate, the generated heat is accumulated along with the gas flow through the gas channel [47] . Therefore, the temperature on the interface between PEM and catalyst layer at the cathode side rises from the inlet of cell to the outlet of cell.…”