The proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is being investigated as an alternate power source for various applications like transportation and emergency power supplies. The paper presents a novel circuit model for a PEM fuel cell that can be used to design and analyze fuel cell power systems. The PSPICE-based model uses bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and LC elements available in the PSPI...

Transients have utmost importance in the lifetime and performance degradation of PEM fuel cells. Recent studies show that cyclic transients can induce hygro-thermal fatigue. In particular, the amount of water in the membrane varies significantly during transients, and determines the ionic conductivity and the structural properties of the membrane. In this work, we present three-dimensional time...

Today, poor long-term performance and durability combined with high production and maintenance costs remain the main obstacles for the commercialization of the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells (PEMFCs). While on-line diagnosis and operating condition optimization play an important role in addressing the durability issue of the fuel cell, health-monitoring and prognosis (or PHM) tec...

The rising interest in fuel cell vehicle technology (FCV) has engendered a growing need and realization to develop rational chemical strategies to create highly efficient, durable, and cost-effective fuel cells. Specifically, technical limitations associated with the major constituent components of the basic proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), namely the cathode catalyst and the proton ...

Polymer electrolyte membrane(PEM) fuel cells have higher efficiency and energy density and are capable of rapidly adjusting to power demands. Effective water management is one of the key issues for increasing the efficiency of PEMFC. In the current study, a three-dimensional(3D) lattice Boltzmann model is developed to simulate the water transport and oxygen diffusion in the gas diffusion layer(...

an essential requirement for an operating pem fuel cell is providing proper water content in the membrane. to avoid water flooding an appropriate water balance is required. here, an analytic model of a planar membrane humidifier for pem fuel cell is proposed where the effect of dimensional parameters includes membrane thickness, membrane area and channel hydraulic diameter are investigated. a n...

Among a number of alternative energy sources, hydrogen is treated as one of the most promising candidates, due to the reason that it can be applied to a fuel cell as an input to provide electricity through an electrochemical reaction. On top of that, high conversion efficiency up to 40 to 60% is seen in a fuel cell. The first application of a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell was as an a...

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell performance depends substantially on the geometry, configuration of flow channels, and size. A right gas field pattern requires a homogeneous reactant distribution, low-pressure drop, good water management. This paper outlines numerical study, investigated influence U-type, Z-type, serpentine steady-state using CFD technique ANSYS FLUENT PEMFC module. Th...

In this paper, a macro-model of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack is proposed. A comparative study is made by simulation for the proposed PEMFC macro-model and a reported PEMFC impedance model, which use for PEMFC dynamic a transfer function and an electrical circuit, respectively. The macro-model approximates the theoretical PEMFC current–voltage characteristic by a controll...

in order to present a new and high performance structure of pem fuel cell and study the influence of the flow direction and distribution on the rate of reactants diffusion, three novel models of vertical reactant flow injection into the anode and cathode reaction area field have been introduced. they consist of one inlet and two inlets and also a continuous channel. the governing equations on t...