Computational parametric analysis of fuel cells: Application to PEMFC and SOFC

Abstract

This study presents a numerical investigation on the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), using the aerothermal and electrochemistry equations to describe all phenomena included in both types of the fuel cells. The computational process is based on the implementation of the mathematical fuel cells models in FLUENT computational fluid dynamics code. This is in order to evaluate the temperature field, the production of the electricity, and the distribution of the water mass fraction in different region of the fuel cells. The obtained results show that the simulation is able to evaluate the physical and chemical parameters to explain the main phenomena in the fuel cells.