A novel membrane transport model for polymer electrolyte fuel cell simulations

• A novel 1D membrane transport model was developed for CFD simulations of PEMFCs.
• The maximal membrane water concentration depends on the temperature.
• A novel mathematical function describing the water sorption isotherm was suggested.
• The developed model was implemented in the CFD code AVL FIRE, tested and validated.
• Simulated polarization curves are found in good agreement with experimental data.

This work presents the development of a 1D model describing water and charge transport through the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) in the fuel cell. The considered driving forces are electrical potential, concentration and pressure gradients. The membrane properties such as water diffusion and electro-osmotic coefficients, water sorption and ionic conductivity are treated as temperature dependent functions. The dependencies of diffusion and electro-osmotic coefficients on the membrane water concentration are described by linear functions. The membrane conductivity is computed in the framework of the percolation theory under consideration that the conducting phase in the PEM is formed by a hydrated functional groups and absorbed water. This developed membrane model was implemented in the CFD code AVL FIRE using 1D/3D coupling. The simulated polarization curves at various humidification of the cathode are found in good agreement with the experiments thus confirming the validity of the model.