Effects of membrane- and catalyst-layer-thickness nonuniformities in polymer-electrolyte fuel cells
Weber, AZ., & Newman, J. (2007). Effects of membrane- and catalyst-layer-thickness nonuniformities in polymer-electrolyte fuel cells. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 154(4), B405-B412.
Abstract
In this paper, results from mathematical, pseudo two-dimensional simulations are shown for four different along-the-channel thickness distributions of both the membrane and cathode catalyst layer. The results and subsequent analysis clearly demonstrate that for the membrane thickness distributions, cell performance is affected a few percent under low relative-humidity conditions and that the position along the gas channel is more important than the local thickness variations. However, for the catalyst-layer-thickness distributions, global performance is not impacted, although for saturated conditions there is a large variability in the local temperature and performance depending on the thickness. (c) 2007 The Electrochemical Society
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