3D modeling of a 200 cm2 HT-PEFC short stack

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a five cell short stack is presented in form of a multi-domain and multi-scale model, which allows the simulation of an entire stack with reasonable computational power and time. The model comprises an averaged volume (porous volume) approach to mimic the flow distribution in the cell flow fields. Electrochemical conversion is described by a standard approach which is based on the Tafel equation. The results are validated against local measurement of temperature and current density inside a HT-PEFC short stack consisting of 5 cells with an active area of 200 cm2.

► We developed a CFD model of a five cell HT-PEFC short stack with 200 cm2 active area. ► The flow fields were modeled as porous media and the electrochemical conversion is described by the Tafel equation. ► The results are validated against local measurements of temperature and current density inside the stack