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Byline: Wael Alimi, Ridha Chouikh, Amenallah Guizani In order to deepen the understanding of the main phenomena governing PEM fuel cell performance, we present a steady state, two dimensional model which accounts simultaneously for species transport, electrochemical kinetics, and current distribution as well as flow dynamics. The problem is stated in a Cartesian coordinates system, involves the use of a control-volume method and solves a single set of governing equations valid for flow channels, gas-diffusion electrodes, catalyst layers and membrane region. The results are compared to the available data and the agreement is satisfactory. The effects of parameters such as humidity, porosity, pressure and electrode thickness on the cell performance were also investigated.

In order to model the transport phenomena in the porous materials used in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells, a two-dimensional PEM fuel cell model has been developed and used to investigate the effects of thickness on cell performance parameters. The governing equations of the overall steady state PEM fuel cell model is represented by the Navier-Stokes equations, consisting of the momentum equations, the continuity equation, the species and energy transport. They were used to model the oxygen molar fraction, electrolyte and solid potential distributions in the flow channels, backing layers, catalyst layers and membrane. The coupled partial differential and electrochemical equations theory are solved basing on the control-volume method. The catalyst layer and membrane thickness involved the performance of the PEM fuel cell. This latter is considered as a reasonable approximation for the effects of geometrical parameters which will be inherently used for further parametric studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]