An agglomerate model for evaluating the electrochemical and hydrodynamic characteristics of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell

In this article, PEM fuel cell’s electrochemical and hydrodynamic characteristics are investigated using an agglomerate model. Modeling is single-phase, two-dimensional, incompressible and steady-state. In this article, current density, water distribution and gas velocity inside the anode and cathode gas diffusion layers are obtained. This study using the present agglomerate model can provide a good prediction of the current density. The results show that the highest current density occurs in the interface areas between current collectors and gas diffusion layers. In addition, there is the highest flow velocity in the sharp areas, where the interface is between the current collectors and the gas diffusion layers. In these areas, values of velocity gradients can affect cell performance. Therefore, in order to achieve better performance, it is necessary to design different flow channels and gas diffusion layers and compare them with each other. Furthermore, the amount of water in the gas diffusion layer should be controlled to not reduce the chemical reaction on the cathode side.