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HFF
17,3 A computational fluid dynamics
analysis of a PEM fuel cell system
for power generation
302
Elena Carcadea
National Research Institute for Isotopic & Cryogenic Technologies,
Received 1 January 2006
Accepted 9 July 2006 Rm.Valcea, Romania
H. Ene
Mathematical Institute, Romanian Academy of Sciences, Bucharest, Romania
D.B. Ingham
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
R. Lazar
National Research Institute for Isotopic & Cryogenic Technologies,
Rm.Valcea, Romania
L. Ma and M. Pourkashanian
Centre for Computational Fluid Dynamics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, and
I. Stefanescu
National Research Institute for Isotopic & Cryogenic Technologies,
Rm.Valcea, Romania

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to present a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
model that simulates the fluid flow, species transport and electric current flow in PEM fuel cells.
Design/methodology/approach – The model makes use of a general-purpose CFD software as a
basic tool incorporating fuel cell specific submodels for multi-component species transport,
electrochemical kinetics, water management and electric phase potential analysis in order to simulate
various processes that occur in a PEM fuel cell.
Findings – Three dimensional results for the flow field, species transport, including waster
formations, and electric current distributions are presented for two test flow configurations in the PEM
fuel cell. For the two cases presented, reasonable predictions have been obtained, and this provides an
insight into the effect of the flow designs to the operation of the fuel cell.
Research limitations/implications – It is appreciated that the CFD modeling of fuel cells is, in
general, still facing significant challenges due to the limited understanding of the complex physical
and chemical processes existing within the fuel cell. The model is now under further development to
improve its capabilities and undergoing further validations.
Practical implications – The model simulations can provide detailed information on some of the
key fluid dynamics, physical and chemical/electro-chemical processes that exist in fuel cells which are
International Journal of Numerical
Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow crucial for fuel cell design and optimization.
Vol. 17 No. 3, 2007
pp. 302-312
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0961-5539
One of the authors, Elena Carcadea would like to express her thanks to the University of Leeds
DOI 10.1108/09615530710730166 and to the EU Marie Curie Fellowship scheme.
Originality/value – The model can be used to understand the operation of the fuel cell and provide Computational
and alternative to experimental investigations in order to improve the performance of the fuel cell.
Keywords Fluid dynamics, Fuels, Flow measurement
fluid dynamics
Paper type Research paper

Nomenclature 303
a ¼ water vapor activity f ¼ phase potential, V
c ¼ molar concentration r ¼ density, kg/m3
D ¼ species diffusivity m ¼ viscosity, kgm/s
I ¼ current density, A/m2 s ¼ electric conductivity, S/m
j ¼ current density, A/m3 l ¼ water content of the membrane
j0 ¼ exchange current density
p ¼ pressure, atm Superscript
R ¼ gas constant, 8.314 J/mol K eff ¼ effective value
S ¼ source terms sat ¼ saturation value
T ¼ temperature
u~ ¼ velocity vector, m/s Subscripts
V ¼ cell potential, V a ¼ anode
Y ¼ species mass fraction c ¼ cathode
e ¼ electrolyte
Greek symbols i ¼ species
1 ¼ porosity ref ¼ reference value
h ¼ overpotential, V

1. Introduction
The demand for a friendly environment and a reliable power source continues to
increase at a rapid rate. One of the emerging technologies in power generation is the
fuel cell technology. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts the chemical
energy of a fuel into electrical energy through chemical reaction instead of combustion.
The high efficiency, high reliability and flexibility and ultra-low emission of the fuel
cell makes it a strong candidate as an alternative power generation for both stationery
and transportation applications. However, modeling of fuel cells still face substantial
challenges and this is primarily due the our limited knowledge on various processes
that occur in the fuel cell (Ma et al., 2005). This paper presents a computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) model that simulates the fluid flow, species transport and electric
current flow in PEM fuel cells. The model simulations can provide detailed information
on some of the key fluid dynamics, physical and chemical/electro-chemical processes
that exist in fuel cells which are crucial for the optimization of fuel cells.
A basic PEM fuel can be made of three components, namely an anode that
accommodates the fuel, a cathode that supplies oxidant, and an electrolyte which
separates the anode and the cathode and provides a passage for the transport of ions.
Both the anode and the cathode have three distinct components: the catalyst layer, the
gas diffusion layer and the gas channel (Figure 1). The fuel and the oxidant are
distributed through the gas channel to the diffusion layer across the fuel cell. The gas
diffusion layer and the catalyst layer are made of porous materials so that the fuel
and the oxidant can be further transported from the diffusion layer to the catalyst
layer where electro-chemical reactions take place in order to generate electricity.
HFF Current Collector
17,3

304

z y
GCa
x GDLa CLa M CLc GDLc

Current Collector

Figure 1.
The geometry of a fuel cell
with straight channels z y
(up), and interdigitated GCa
channels (down) x GDLa CLa M CLc GDLc

The purpose of the development of the CFD model is to numerically investigate various
major physical and chemical processes that occur in the fuel cell, in particular, the
effectiveness of the multi-component transport of the fuel and the oxidant across
the fuel cell and its effects on the electrochemical kinetics and the overall performance
of the fuel cell.

2. Model description
When developing the model, it is assumed that the fuel cell operates under steady and
isothermal conditions, the fuel and the air flows can be treated as incompressible and
laminar, and the porous media, such as the gas diffusion layer and the catalyst layers,
are isotropic and homogeneous. Under these assumptions, the fluid flow, reactant
species transport and the electrical potential in the fuel cell can be expressed by
following conservative equations (Bernardi and Verbrugge, 1991):

7 · ð1ru~ Þ ¼ 0 ð1Þ

7 · ð1ru~ u~ Þ ¼ 217p þ 7 · ð1m7u~ Þ þ Su ð2Þ


7 · ð1u~ Y i Þ ¼ 7 Deff
i 7Y i þ Si ð3Þ
 
7 · seeff 7fe þ Sf ¼ 0 ð4Þ
where u~ , Yi and fs denote the velocity vector of the fluid flow, the mass fraction of the Computational
ith species and the electric potential, respectively, within the fuel cell. For the fuel cell
operated with hydrogen and air, typically four species may be considered in the system
fluid dynamics
including hydrogen, H2, oxygen, O2, water, H2O, and nitrogen, N2. The source terms in
equations (2 –4) are due to the presence of the porous matrix, the chemical reactions
and the ionization process.
The matrix of the porous elements of the fuel cell produces a significant resistance 305
to the fluid flow. Typically this effect is modeled by the Darcy Law and this result in a
momentum source in the momentum equation (2). Since, the resistance of the matrix is
usually the dominant force in the flow system, the convective acceleration and the
diffusion terms, appearing in equation (2), are relatively small and thus can often be
ignored. However, it should be noted that the use of the Darcy law only has its
limitations when modeling fluid flows in multi-component fuel cells when the
porosities in different layers vary significantly and the Darcy law does not take into
consideration the effect of the boundaries between the layers.
The consumption of the fuel and oxidant in the catalyst layers result in a
concentration gradient across the fuel cell and the delivery of the reactants to the
reaction site significantly rely on the process of species diffusion, which is primarily
driven by the concentration gradients. The species diffusion transport is modeled in
equation (3) with a species diffusivity coefficient. The presence of the porous matrix
has a significant impact on the species diffusion and in this model this is modeled by
employing the Bruggemann correction to the mass diffusivity coefficient as follows
(Um and Wang, 2000):

Deff 1:5
i ¼ 1 Di ð5Þ

In this model we assume isotropic and homogenous porous media. It should be

noted that in practice, due to the nature of the material of which the gas diffusion
layer of the PEMFC is made, as well as the manufacturing process taken to make the
fuel cell, the matrix is usually not isotropic and the pores are far from being
homogenous.
Further, since at least three species are present in the system then the species
transport in the fuel cell is a multi-component diffusive process in which the flux of one
component is influenced by the concentration gradient of other components. The
Maxwell-Stefan equations have been used to account for the cross-coupling between
multi-species components and the binary mass diffusion coefficient are calculated
using the following equation (Fuller and Newman, 1993):

›X k X N
XlXm  i 
¼ vl 2 vim ð6Þ
›x i l¼1
D lm

where X is the species mole fraction, v denotes the component of the diffusive velocity
of the species and Dlm is the binary diffusivity of any two species l and m.
The source term for the phase potential equation (4) only exits for the catalyst layer.
This is because the ionization only takes place within the catalyst layer which
produces the electric current. The transfer current densities are given by the
Butler-Volmer equation (Um and Wang, 2000), as follows:
HFF !1=2     
cH 2 aa F ac F
17,3 janode ¼ jref
0;a exp hact;a 2 exp 2 hact;a ð7Þ
cref
H2
RT RT
!    
cO 2 aa F ac F
jcathode ¼ jref
0;c exp hact;c 2 exp 2 hact;c ð8Þ
cref RT RT
306 O2

where aa and ac are the transfer coefficients, hact,a and hact,c are the activation
over-potential and jref ref
0;a and j0;c are the reference exchange current density at the anode
and cathode side, respectively. The over-potentials should be a function of the transfer
current density and in this model they are supplied as inputs into the model which, at
the moment have to be obtained experimentally.
Water management is a critical issue for the performance of the PEM fuel cell since
the polymer membrane must be in a highly hydrated state to facilitate proton
transport. Water transport within the polymer membrane is controlled by two, usually
opposite processes, namely the electro-osmotic drag and the back diffusion. When the
PEMFC is in operation, hydrogen ions moving through the electrolyte from the anode
to the cathode pull the water molecules with them. The larger the number of ions
transferred then the more water will be dragged along with them. Thus, the water
content in the electrode is determined by both the water generation due to the oxygen
reduction reaction and the water flux to/from the polymer membrane. In the model
presented, the molar flux of water, a, is calculated based on the electro-osmotic drag
coefficient nd, water content, l, and water activity, a, and these values are given by the
following expressions (Bernardi and Verbrugge, 1991; Fuller and Newman, 1993;
Nguyen and White, 1993):
nd · j
a¼ ð9Þ
F
nd ¼ 0:0028l þ 0:05l 2 3:5 £ 10219 ð10Þ
(
0:043 þ 17:18a 2 39:85a 2 þ 36:0a 3 for 0 , a # 1
l¼ ð11Þ
14 þ 1:4ða 2 1Þ for 1 # a # 3

X H2 O p
a¼ ð12Þ
p sat
log10 p sat ¼ 22:1794 þ 0:02953ðT 2 273:15Þ 2 9:1837 £ 1025 ðT 2 273:15Þ2
ð13Þ
þ 1:4454 £ 1027 ðT 2 273:15Þ3
A summary of the source terms in equations (2)-(4) is given in Table I. In order to solve
the governing set of equations (1)-(4) incorporating the supplementary equations
(5)-(13), we employed a single computational domain that covers every component of
the fuel cell. As a result, no condition at the interface between the different components
of the fuel cell is required, except that a special treatment is implemented for equation
(4) where a no-flux of electrons has been assumed across the membrane. Boundary
conditions are only required at the external surfaces of the fuel cell and typically they
include the fluid flow conditions at the inlets and outlets of the gas channels and the Computational
operational potential of the fuel cell. fluid dynamics
As a preliminary test of the model, we have used a straight channel fuel cell unit
(Um and Wang, 2000) (Figure 1). It consists of an anode and a cathode sandwiched with
a polymer electrolyte. Within each electrode there are two parallel straight gas
channels, a gas diffusion layer and a very thin catalyst layer. Porous graphite has been
used to support the electrodes and act as a current collector. In the simulation, two 307
types of flow configurations have been investigated, namely, the straight flow
configuration and the interdigitated flow configuration. In both configurations co-flow
arrangements have been used, i.e. the fuel and air are fed in from the same end and
flow in the same direction in the fuel cell. The interdigitated flow configuration is
formed by injecting the air into the bottom channel from one end and forcing it out
from the top channel at the other end. The other end of the channels are blocked
(Figure 1(b)).
Figure 2 shows a typical computational domain that has been employed with a
coarse grid consisting of about 106,000 cells. A finer grid has been tested which
consists of about 530,000 computational cells and the results obtained are graphically
indistinguishable between the two meshes. Since, the Reynolds number of the fluid
flow in the fuel cell is very small, a laminar flow is assumed throughout the cell. The
phase potential is set to be zero on the anode side and a constant value on the cathode
side. The rates of fuel and air flows have been specified at the inlets of the gas channels
and at the outlets a pressure condition has been specified. The details of the physical
and operational parameters employed are listed in Table II.

Governing equations Volumetric source terms

Momentum transport Su ¼ 2ðm=kÞ1u

Hydrogen transport (anode) SH2 ¼ 2ðM H2 =2FÞ · janode
Oxygen transport (cathode) SO2 ¼ 2ðM O2 =4FÞ · jcathode
Water transport (anode) SH2 O ¼ 2M H2 O · a Table I.
Water transport (cathode) SH2 O ¼ M H2 O · a þ ðM H2 O =2FÞ · jcathode Source terms of
Phase potential Sf ¼ 2j conservation equations

H2 Air

Figure 2.
Computational domain
H2 Air with a coarse grid
HFF
Property Value
17,3
Cell length (cm) 7.112
Gas channel height (cm) 0.0762
Gas channel width (cm) 0.0762
Current collector width (cm) 0.0762
308 Anode/cathode GDL thickness (cm) 0.0254
Membrane thickness (cm) 0.0178
Anode catalyst layer thickness 0.001 cm
Cathode catalyst layer thickness 0.001 cm
Porosity of GDL 0.8
Porosity of CL 0.4
Cell temperature (K) 353
Inlet N2/O2 mole fraction ratio 0.79/0.21
Pressure at the anode/cathode gas channel 3/5 (atm)
Anode Cathode
Velocity(m/s) 0.5 0.35
Mass fraction of H2 0.406 0
Table II. Mass fraction of H2O 0.594 0.08534
Physical and operating Mass fraction of O2 0 0.23
parameters Inlet temperature (K) 353 353

3. Results and discussions

Because the length of the cell (in the y-direction) is very large compared with the other
dimensions of the cell, we have scaled the y-direction with a factor 0.1 for all the figures
presented, in order to achieve a good visualization of the results.
Figure 3 shows the velocity contours in two representative planes within the gas
channels and across the diffusion layers for both straight and interdigitated
configurations. It can be seen that for the straight channel configuration, Figure 3(a),
in the anode side the velocity is maximum at the inlet and gradually decreases along
the flow channel due to the effect of flowing into the diffusion layer and the
consumption of the fuel. A slight increase in the flow speed may be observed near to
the exit. In the cathode side, an increase in the gas velocity may be observed due to
the formation of water that increases the mass flow rates of the flow. Fluid velocities
within the porous regions are generally very small compared to that in the gas
channel. Further, significant secondary flows are observed both in the gas channel
and across the porous regions. For the interdigitated configuration, Figure 3(b), in the
cathode side the fluid velocity are very small at the dead ends of both the upper and
the bottom channels while high speed flows appear at the inlet and out let of the
channel. The air is forced to penetrate the porous current collector between the lower
and the upper channels and this is beneficial to an efficient delivery of the oxygen
across the region.
Figure 4 shows the distribution of oxygen in the fuel cell in terms of mass
fractions. The contours of oxygen mass fractions are shown in a reaction surface
within the catalyst layer and two sections across the gas channels in the cathode side
for the straight flow configuration, Figure 4(a), and for the interdigitated flow
configuration, Figure 4(b). In both configurations, air flow is coming in form the left
hand side and discharged from the right hand side of the channel. The concentration
of the oxygen is decreasing downstream of the channel for both cases due to
0.83 Computational
0.79 fluid dynamics
0.75
0.71
0.66
0.62
0.58 309
0.54
0.50
0.46 Y Y
Z X Z X
0.41
0.37
0.33
0.29
0.25
0.21
0.17 Figure 3.
0.12 Velocity contours
0.08 above/under current
collector for a cell with:
0.04 (a) straight and
Y Y
0.00 (b) interdigitated fuel
Z X Z X
channels
(a) (b)

0.30
0.29
0.27
0.25
0.24
0.23
0.21
0.20
z
0.18 X
Y
0.17
0.15
0.14
0.12
0.11
0.09
0.08 Figure 4.
0.06 The O2 mass fraction for a
0.05 cell with: straight fuel
0.03 channels (up),
0.02 interdigitated fuel
z
0.00 channels (down)
Y X
HFF chemical/electrochemical reactions that consume oxygen. In the case of the straight
17,3 channel, the oxygen decreases monotonically along the gas channels as the
electrochemical reaction proceeds and the profile of oxygen concentration shows a
symmetrical pattern about the z-axis due to the symmetrical flow arrangement. It is
noted that due to the effect of the porous current collector, a low oxygen
concentration regions exists underneath the current collector around the axis of
310 symmetry. Under a straight flow configuration, the convective flow is in parallel to
the gas channel and the oxygen delivery to the region covered by the current collector
is mainly through diffusion processes and this substantially limits the efficient
delivery of the reactants to the reaction site. However, this situation may be changed
by using the interdigitated flow configuration, Figure 4(b), where the air is forced to
flow through the porous current collector before it discharged at the top channel.
As we can observe in Figure 4 that the overall distribution of the oxygen in the
interdigitated flow configuration is very different from the case in the straight flow
configuration. Oxygen concentration in the region underneath the current collector is
improved significantly and lowest oxygen concentration is near to the dead end of the
bottom air channel. The dead zone formed at the end of the channel limits the transfer
of the oxygen to the region.
The change in the air delivery between the two flow configurations has a significant
impact on the performance of the fuel cell. Figure 5 shows the predicted cathode side
electrical potentials in a plane within the catalytic reaction layer. For the straight flow
configuration, Figure 5(a), the profile of the phase potential is symmetric and the
maximum phase potential occurs at the inlet of the channel, where the highest oxygen
concentration exists. Downstream of the channel the potential decreases with the

0.80028
0.80027
0.80025
0.80024
0.80022
0.80021
0.80020
0.80018
0.80017 Z
0.80015 X
Y
0.80014
0.80013
0.80011
0.80010
0.80008
0.80007
Figure 5.
0.80006
The phase potential
profiles for the cell with: 0.80004
Z
straight fuel channel (up), 0.80003
interdigitated fuel channel 0.80001 Y X
(down) 0.80000
decrease in the oxygen supply in the gas stream. The lowest potential occurs in the Computational
region covered by the current collector. In the case of interdigitated flow (Figure 5(b)), fluid dynamics
oxygen supply in the region improves and thus the phase potential. In general, a
relatively higher phase potential is predicted for the interdigitated flow configuration
compared to the straight flow configuration.
In order to keep the polymer electrolyte active, moisture is usually introduced in
the fuel gas flow to compensate the water losses due to the electro-osmotic action in 311
the electrolyte. The predicted water transportation in the anode and the cathode of
the fuel cell are shown in Figure 6. In the anode side, the water concentration steadily
decreases along the gas flow while in the cathode it increases due to the water
production in the reaction and the influx of water from the electrolyte. At the exit of
the gas channel on the cathode side of the interdigitated flow configuration,
Figure 6(b), the gas flow contains more water than it does in the straight flow
configuration, Figure 6(a), showing an improve performance of the fuel cell. It should
be noted that in some situations water back diffusion from the cathode to the anode
may occur if the water content at the cathode is much higher than it is at the anode
side, particularly when a low ionization-efficiency exists downstream of the gas flow
channel. It should also be noted that liquid water may form if the water partial
pressure is higher than the saturated vapor pressure. The existence of the liquid
water in the catalyst and the gas diffusion layers can block the effective reacting
surface and the pores of the diffusion layer. In this situation, employing a
single-phase flow model will be inaccurate.

0.594
0.561
0.528
0.495
0.462
0.429
0.396
Z
0.363
Y X
0.330
0.297
0.264
0.231
0.198
0.165
0.132 Figure 6.
0.099 Water mole fraction
profile for a cell with:
0.066
Z straight fuel channels (up),
0.033 interdigitated fuel
0.000
Y X channels (down)
HFF 4. Conclusions
This paper presents results from a three-dimensional, steady state, single-phase model
17,3 of a PEM fuel cell that has been developed using the fluent CFD software as a basic
tool. The fuel cell specific sub-models have been developed which incorporate the
electrochemical kinetics and multi-dimensional fluid flow and multi-component species
transport. Water management and electric fields under typical PEMFC operation
312 conditions have been simulated. For the two test cases presented, reasonable
predictions have been obtained for both the reactant distributions, including water
formations across the cell as well as the cell potentials predictions. The model is now
under further development to improve its capabilities and under going further
validations. It is appreciated that the CFD modeling of fuel cells is, in general, still
facing significant challenges due to the limited understanding of the complex physical
and chemical processes existing within the fuel cell. However, with the further
development of the modeling capabilities, the modeling of fuel cells using CFD
techniques can be an important alternative to the experimental measurements in
providing information that is critical to the fuel cell design and optimization.

References
Bernardi, D. and Verbrugge, M.W. (1991), “A mathematical model of the
solid-polymer-electrolyte fuel cell”, J. Electrochem. Society, Vol. 139 No. 9, p. 2477.
Fuller, T.F. and Newman, J. (1993), “Water and thermal management in solid-polymer-electrolyte
fuel cells”, J. Electrochem. Society, Vol. 140, pp. 1218-25.
Ma, L., Ingham, D.B., Pourkashanian, M.C. and Carcadea, E. (2005), “Review of the computational
fluid dynamics modeling of fuel cells”, Journal of Fuel Cell Science and Technology, Vol. 2
No. 4, pp. 246-57.
Nguyen, T.V. and White, R.E. (1993), “A water and thermal management model for proton
exchange membrane fuel cells”, J. Electrochem. Society, Vol. 140, pp. 2178-86.
Um, S. and Wang, C.Y. (2000), “Computational fluid dynamics modeling of proton
exchange-membrane fuel cells”, J. Electrochem. Society, Vol. 147, pp. 4485-93.

Corresponding author
D.B. Ingham can be contacted at: [email protected]; [email protected]

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