Development of a Two-Phase PEM Fuel Cell Model for the Electrical Performance Prediction of PEMFC Systems with Nation 117 Membrane

Abstract

It was implemented in this study a steady-state, non- isothermal, two-phase model for Nafion-based PEMFC systems using the Finite Element Method (FEM) based Comsol Multiphysics software. Inside this numerical model were considered different parametrization laws for ionic conductivity, water diffusivity in ionomer, electro-osmotic drag coefficient and equilibrium water uptake, established based on the experimental data reported in the literature by various researchers for the widely available Nafion 117 membrane. The overall impact of this uncertainty in Nafion material parametrization on the fuel cell model performance was evaluated here. It was reported the variation of electrolyte potential and ionomer water content in correlation with electrolyte current density and water ionomer flux, along with temperature and heat flux gradients. Simulated polarization plots were compared with the experimental polarization curve registered with Nafion 117 MEA based BEKKTECH BT-552 system under testing at some specific operation settings.