Transient response of high temperature PEM fuel cell

A transient three-dimensional, single-phase and non-isothermal numerical model of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell with high operating temperature has been developed and implemented in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code. The model accounts for transient convective and diffusive transport, and allows prediction of species concentration. Electrochemical charge double-layer effect is considered. Heat generation according to electrochemical reaction and ohmic loss are involved. Water transportation across membrane is ignored due to low water electro-osmosis drag force of polymer polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane. The prediction shows transient in current density which overshoots (undershoots) the stabilized state value when cell voltage is abruptly decreased (increased). The result shows that the peak of overshoot (undershoot) is related with cathode air stoichiometric mass flow rate instead of anode hydrogen stoichiometric mass flow rate. Current is moved smoothly and there are no overshoot or undershoot with the influence of charge double-layer effect. The maximum temperature is located in cathode catalyst layer and both fuel cell average temperature and temperature deviation are increased with increasing of current load. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.