An Effective Force-Temperature-Humidity Coupled Modeling for PEMFC Performance Parameter Matching by Using CFD and FEA Co-Simulation

High-performance proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) vehicles are important for realizing carbon neutrality in transportation. However, the optimal power density of the fuel cell performance is difficult to achieve due to the internal complex operating conditions of a fuel cell stack. Moreover, there is a lack of effective models to solve the coupled multi-physical fields (force, temperature and humidity, etc.) in the PEMFC, particularly considering the gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression. Thus, a force-temperature-humidity coupled modeling method is introduced to evaluate the effects of key operating conditions for the fuel cell performance parameter matching. Firstly, the interfacial contact resistance and GDL porosity are obtained by a force-temperature coupled simulation using a finite element analysis (FEA) modeling, then the obtained results are introduced into a temperature-humidity coupled simulation using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. An iteration algorithm is proposed to realize the force-temperature-humidity coupled simulation for the PEMFC performance. The main characteristics of the PEMFC performance parameters are revealed and the optimum matching criteria of the main performance parameters (temperature, stoichiometric ratio and relative humidity) are determined. The presented co-simulation method is significant and effective for realizing the PEMFC performance parameter matching condition, and it provides a design direction for an optimal power density of a fuel cell stack.