Abstract
A prediction of water content profile around the polymer membrane is very important, because the polymer membrane should be in the wet condition for the best performance design of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC). Small channels and porous gas diffusion layers are assembled to the anode and cathode interface of the polymer membrane to control the optimized water content profile in the PEFC design. Therefore, it is an important and fundamental technology to predict a flow and mass transport of fuel gases, electron, proton ions, and liquid and vaporized water, with their multi-physics phenomena. The research has aimed to offer a useful numerical simulation technology, where the flow analysis software forecasting these multi-physics phenomena of the fuel cell is newly developed, and the direct numerical simulation of a mechanism of the water transport is applied to analysis of its micro-scale phenomena. These simulation technologies were validated by the experimental investigation of PEFC performance design to develop the best prediction of the flow and mass transport in PEFC design.
