PEM Fuel Cell Stack

Application ID: 103241


This tutorial model defines a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack, consisting of five fuel cells.

The flow field in the individual plates is described using a anisotropic permeability, defining the governing flow direction.

The hydrogen and oxygen channels are antisymmetric and give a co-current flow in the inlet and outlet section, and a counter-current flow in the middle of the plates.

The model includes a full coupling between fluid flow, multicomponent transport, electrolyte potential, and electrode potentials. The model includes detailed electrode kinetics and thermodynamics.

The cell voltage is varied in a so-called auxiliary sweep in order to compute a polarization (I vs V) curve.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: