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A model and simulation of cathode flooding and drying on unsteady proton exchange membrane fuel cell

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Abstract

A water balance has a significant impact on the overall system performance in proton exchange membrane fuel cell. An actual fuel cell application has a dynamic electrical load which means also dynamic electrical current. Therefore, since this electrical current is known, the water production from the fuel cell reaction is also able to be predicted. As long as the fuel cell water transportation model is provided, the present liquid water inside the porous medium is also able to be modeled. A model of the liquid water saturation level in a fuel cell in unsteady load condition was proposed. This model is a series of the water transportation model of water saturation level for the final output of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell to predict the flooding or drying of PEM fuel cell. The simulation of vehicle fuel cell in different dynamic load profiles and different inlet air conditions was done using this model. The simulation result shows that PEM fuel cell with different dynamic load profiles has different liquid water saturation level profiles. This means that a dynamic load fuel cell requires also a dynamic input air humidification.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan, Korea

    A. Bakhtiar, Jung-In Yoon & Kwang-Hwan Choi

  2. Department of Automotive, Dong-Pusan Collage University, Busan, Korea

    Young-Bok Kim

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan, Korea

    Jin-Kwang You

Authors
  1. A. Bakhtiar
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  2. Young-Bok Kim
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  3. Jin-Kwang You
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  4. Jung-In Yoon
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  5. Kwang-Hwan Choi
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Correspondence to Kwang-Hwan Choi.

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Bakhtiar, A., Kim, YB., You, JK. et al. A model and simulation of cathode flooding and drying on unsteady proton exchange membrane fuel cell. J. Cent. South Univ. 19, 2572–2577 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-012-1312-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-012-1312-y

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