Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell ionomer hydration model using finite volume method

International audience<div id="abssec0010"&gt<p id="abspara0010"&gtIn this paper a dynamic <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/membrane-electrode-assembly"title="Learn more about membrane electrode assembly from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages"class="topic-link"&gtmembrane electrode assembly</a&gt water transportmodel, based on the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/finite-volume-method"title="Learn more about Finite Volume Method from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages"class="topic-link"&gtFinite Volume Method</a&gt, is presented. Thepurpose of this paper is to provide an accessible and reproductiblemodel capable of real time simulation. To this aim, a detailedexplanation is provided regarding the equations and methods used tocompute the physical-based fuel cell model. Additionally, the modelis purposely developed using basic code (on Matlab™), to not belimited to a single programming language. Two phase water transportthrough multi-gaseous <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/porous-medium"title="Learn more about porous media from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages"class="topic-link"&gtporous media</a&gt (electrodes), interfacialtransport, as well as diffusion, convection, and electro-osmosiswithin the polymer are considered. The main novelty relies in therestructuring of all equations into a single implicit system, whichcan iteratively be resolved through LU decomposition. Thiscomputationally efficient method allows the model to be capable ofreal-time simulation, by displaying the membrane water contentprofile evolution on a 3D figure. For nominal PEMFC operatingconditions, a dry membrane reaches 35% of its final waterconcentration value after 2&nbsp;s, and fully converges after20&nbsp;s. The final water content profile displays an 18% gradient(9 and 11 molecules per <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/sulphonic-acid"title="Learn more about sulfonic acid from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages"class="topic-link"&gtsulfonic acid</a&gt sites on the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/anodes-and-cathode"title="Learn more about anode and cathode from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages"class="topic-link"&gtanode and cathode</a&gt sides, respectively). Tocalibrate and validate this model, mass transfer (flowmeter) andelectrical (ohmmeter) methods have been applied.</p&gt