Temperature Distribution and Polarization Curve Sensitivity in the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Single Cell

Abstract

This work is a study of coupled charges and heat transfers phenomena on a low temperature PEMFC single cell. A one-dimensional steady state model was developed to compute current and temperature distributions in a PEMFC single cell whatever the operating conditions. The work comprises of three parts: Firstly, a litterature survey was conducted to describe the principle of a PEMFC and the fundamental operations. A state of the art of the previous modeling works on the PEMFC was also presented in this part. Secondly, the developed model using the basic relations to describe heat and charges transfer phenomena occurring in the single PEM cell was presented. Finally , a simple simulation tool called FCvb was performed and optimized using Visual Basic Excel and refering to the previous relations in the developed model. To finalize this basic study, a conclusion and perspectives were presented in the last part of this work.