Fuel cell model based on proton exchange membrane (PEM)

This paper presents the development of the electrical and mathematical models which is able to simulate the static and dynamic phenomena of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The models were validated against the current distribution data experimentally measured earlier. A parallel computational methodology was employed to substantially reduce the computational time and to make large-scale calculations involving millions of grid points. Simulation results were analyzed and validated against the available experimental data of current distribution under fully humidified conditions and cathode stoichiometric ratio equal to two. The comparisons of the simulations and experiments showed a lack of agreement in the current distribution, although the average polarization curves matched very closely.