A fast two-phase non-isothermal reduced-order model for accelerating PEM fuel cell design development
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Pan, Yuwei
Wang, Huizhi
Brandon, Nigel P
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
A reduced-order model (ROM) is developed for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) considering the non-isothermal two-phase effects, with the goal of enhancing computational efficiency and thus accelerating fuel cell design development. Using analytical order reduction and approximation methods, the fluxes and source terms in conventional 1D conservation equations are reduced to six computing nodes at the interfaces between each cell component. The errors associated with order reduction are minimized by introducing new approximation methods for the potential distribution, the transport properties, and the membrane hydration status. The trade-off between model accuracy and computational efficiency is studied by comparing the simulation results and computational times of the new model with a full 1D model. The new model is nearly two orders of magnitude faster without sacrificing too much accuracy (<4% difference) compared to the 1D model. The new model is then used to analyze the influence of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design on cell performance and internal state distributions, offering insights into MEA structural optimization. The model can be readily extended to account for more detailed physico-chemical processes, such as Knudsen diffusion or the influence of micro-porous layers, and it can be an effective tool for understanding and designing PEMFCs.
Date Issued
2022-11-15
Date Acceptance
2022-09-05
Citation
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2022, 47 (91), pp.38774-38792
ISSN
0360-3199
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
38774
End Page
38792
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume
47
Issue
91
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360319922041210?via%3Dihub
Subjects
Energy
03 Chemical Sciences
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-09-24