Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Asymmetric Humidification and Dynamic Temperature in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Abstract

The relative humidity is an important parameter reflecting the performance of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, which is often accompanied by changes in heat and temperature. In order to study the different humidification effects on the performance of PEM fuel cells, a temperature and heat transfer (T&HT) model is presented. The innovation of this paper is to study the performance of fuel cell (FC) from the perspective of temperature heat transfer by asymmetric humidification. Firstly, symmetrical humidification experiments are performed at three operating temperatures. After that, a three‐dimensional (3D) structure is built using fluent and T&HT model is imported through custom functions. Secondly, the asymmetric humidification experiment is put into practice with 60 °C operating temperature. Furthermore, the Taguchi method is used to optimize the performance of fuel cells in the crossover experiment. Finally, the experimental and numerical results are compared by the contours and polarization curves. The results show that T&HT model is in agreement with the experiment, and asymmetric humidification is more reasonable and flexible than symmetrical humidification. When the cathode relative humidity is 50% and the anode relative humidity is 75%, the maximum optimization rate of system efficiency is 17%.

Factors influencing the performance of PEM fuel cells: A review on performance parameters, water management, and cooling techniques

“…Mittermeiert 72 plotted polarization curves to study the effect of RH on PEM fuel cell performance during startup/shut-down situations. Result showed a lower start-up/ shut-down decay rate by a factor of ≈3 (mV.cycle À1 .s À1 ) when the value of RH decreases from 100% to 25% at 80 C. It has been investigated numerically and experimentally by Liu et al 73 that RH of the cathode and anode has a different effect on cell performance. The maximum optimization rate of system efficiency was observed at 17% when the RH was 50% at the cathode and 70% at the anode.…”