Optimization of proton-exchange membrane fuel cell via multi-objective CFD-based design

This article investigates the numerical simulation of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell via computational fluid dynamics techniques in ANSYS Fluent. A fuel cell is a device for converting hydrogen fuel into electrical power through electrochemical reactions. So, optimizing the design of the fuel cell construction is essential to improve its electrochemical performance. Therefore, the optimization process of the fuel cell has been performed in three stages, including the design of experiments, response surface methodology, and multi-objective genetic algorithm. For this purpose, various parameters such as the width of the gas flow channels, the thickness of the electrolyte membrane layer, and the porosity of the gas diffusion layer are studied in a specified range: channel width from 1.25 to 1.75 mm, the membrane thickness from 0.04 to 0.06 mm, and the porosity from 0.2 to 0.8. In the electrochemical analysis approach, the findings revealed that the wider the flow channels and the thinner the membrane layer, the better the performance of the fuel cell system. Besides, it was discovered that increasing the porosity in the electrode layer has the highest effect on enhancing the performance of the fuel cell. It means the maximum power density is achieved in the widest flow channel, the thinnest membrane layer, and the most porous gas diffusion layer. Nonetheless, an analysis of the fuel cell design is carried out to prevent significant pressure drops through the flow channels, excessive increase in the cell operating temperature, and hyper-drying in the membrane layer.