3-D isothermal model for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

A three-dimensional isothermal model is developed to study the performance of proton exchanger membrane (PEM) fuel cells The model is developed by integrating transport equations in different elements of the fuel cell with the electrochemical reation kinetics. The model are applied in unified domains consisting different elements of the fuel cell. The model is used to numerically simulate the performance of PENT fuel cell and study the effects of various parameters. The numerical algorithm is based on finite volume method. Tins 3-D model had been applied to elucidate the mechanism of species transport and current density distributions within the fuel cell. The polarization curves obtained with this model compare well with experimental data from the literature. In this paper some typical results of oxygen concentration distributions, and a typical result of reaction rate variation in the catalyst layer are presented.