Heat and Mass Transfer Research Journal (HMTRJ)

Research Article

Similarity and Scaling Effects in PEM Fuel Cells

A. M. Tahsini

Tehran, Iran

Submitted: August 24, 2017; Revised: November 25, 2017; Accepted: November 30, 2017

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to investigate similarity in the proton exchange membrane fuel cells and also to analyze the impacts of geometric scaling on the polarization curve. The effects of concentration distribution are analyzed and it is illustrated that both lateral and longitudinal variation of the species concentrations are important and effective on the polarization curve. Also the similarity is examined and it is concluded that the similarity may exist in fuel cells behavior considering the proper requirements, and also the effects of scaling on different regions of the polarization curve are studied. Here, the two-dimensional, single-phase, steady-state, isothermal, and multi-component system of flow fields governing equations are used besides the equations for electric and ionic potentials to simulate the fuel cell operation, where the cell-centered finite-volume method is utilized as a numerical scheme.

Keywords

Fuel cell; Numerical study; Polarization curve; Scaling; Similarity.

Downlaod Full Text >>