Numerical simulation and modeling of liquid-feed direct methanol fuel cell

Tien Chien Jen, Tuanzhou Yan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

A two-phase flow model was developed for liquid-feed methanol fuel cells (DMFC) to evaluate the effects of various operating parameters on the DMFC performance. In this study, a general homogenous two-dimensional model is described in details for both porous layers and fluid channels. This two-dimensional general model accounts for fluid flow, electrochemical kinetics, current density distribution, hydrodynamics, multi-component transport, and methanol crossover. It starts from basic transport equations including mass conservation, momentum transport, energy balance, and species concentration conservation in different elements of the fuel cell sandwich, as well as the equations for the phase potential in the membrane and the catalyst layers. These governing equations are coupled with chemical reaction kinetics by introducing various source terms. It is found that all these equations are in a very similar form except the source terms. Based on this observation, all the governing equations can be solved using the same numerical formulation in the single domain without prescribing the boundary conditions at the various interfaces between the different elements of the fuel cell. Detailed numerical formulations are presented in this paper. The numerical simulation results, such as velocity field, local current density distribution, and species concentration variation along the flow channel, under various operation conditions are computed. The performance of the DMFC affected by various parameters such as temperature, pressure, and methanol concentration is investigated in this paper. The numerical results are further validated with available experimental data from the published literatures.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of 4th International ASME Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, FUELCELL2006
Publication statusPublished - 2006
Externally publishedYes
Event4th International ASME Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, FUELCELL2006 - Irvine, CA, United States
Duration: 19 Jun 200621 Jun 2006

Publication series

NameProceedings of 4th International ASME Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, FUELCELL2006
Volume2006

Conference

Conference4th International ASME Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, FUELCELL2006
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityIrvine, CA
Period19/06/0621/06/06

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering

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