CSE Seminar
SPEAKER: Bikash Mishra, Mississippi State University
TITLE:
Development of a Multi-Resolution Computational Model to Simulate
Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
DATE: Wednesday, July 23, 2008
TIME: 12:00 Noon
PLACE: 2240 DCL
1304 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana, IL
ABSTRACT
With the decrease in fossil fuel resources over the last few years,
there has been an increase in efforts to identify and develop alternate
sources of energy. Fuel cells as alternate energy source are clean and
efficient, and are a promising technology to meet the energy needs of
future. Computational methods can be used to predict fuel cell
performance by modeling the mass, momentum, and heat transport
equations in different modules of a fuel cell, while also incorporating
electrochemical reactions at the catalyst layers. However, given the
complexity of the model, modeling the fuel cell as a complete
three-dimensional system can be extremely expensive. In this research
a multi-resolution finite volume model has been developed to reduce the
computational expense, while still maintaining accuracy. The
multi-resolution approach treats the channel as quasi-1D model (i.e.,
the complete equations are solved only in the flow direction), while a
1D+2D model is applied at the catalyst layers (i.e., at each location
of the fuel cell plate, the governing equations are integrated in the
direction perpendicular to the plate). The gas diffusion layers and
membrane are fully 3D in nature. This model has been used to predict
steady and unsteady behavior of traditional fuel cells used in
automotive applications and passive fuel cells used in portable
applications.