The aim of this work is to determine the relationship between the operational characteristics of a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell, and the relevant materials issues and in particular mechanical stresses that develop. A three dimensional, non-isothernal, single phase model of a single channel PEM fuel cell is developed to investigate the impact of temperature variation on the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA). The model accounts for heat transfer in solids as well as in the multi-component mixture of gases, convection and diffusion of different species in the porous electrodes and the channels, electrochemical reactions and transport of water and ions through the PEM. This model has been numerically implemented in a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD), finite volume based code. Temperature contours derived from the model were then exported to a commercial Finite Element (FE) code to analyse the relevant mechanical issues of the PEM and in particular thermomechanical stresses that develop. Initial results verify that, even considering the polymer electrolyte membrane in isolation with mechanically free boundary conditions, there is a significant temperature difference leading to tensile stresses of up to 2.1 MPa within the membrane.
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ASME 2004 2nd International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology
June 14–16, 2004
Rochester, New York, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Nanotechnology Institute
ISBN:
0-7918-4165-0
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Combining CFD and Stress Models for PEM Cells: Initial Development
Carlos Martinez-Baca,
Carlos Martinez-Baca
Imperial College London, London, UK
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Rowland Travis
Rowland Travis
Imperial College London, London, UK
Search for other works by this author on:
Carlos Martinez-Baca
Imperial College London, London, UK
Rowland Travis
Imperial College London, London, UK
Paper No:
FUELCELL2004-2469, pp. 183-188; 6 pages
Published Online:
November 17, 2008
Citation
Martinez-Baca, C, & Travis, R. "Combining CFD and Stress Models for PEM Cells: Initial Development." Proceedings of the ASME 2004 2nd International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology. 2nd International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology. Rochester, New York, USA. June 14–16, 2004. pp. 183-188. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/FUELCELL2004-2469
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