Acta Mechanica Sinica (2013) 29(3):318–334

DOI 10.1007/s10409-013-0037-y

REVIEW ARTICLE

Numerical modeling and simulation of PEM fuel cells:

Progress and perspective

Guang-Hua Song · Hua Meng

Received: 6 February 2013 / Revised: 30 March 2013 / Accepted: 26 April 2013

©The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Abstract This paper provides a comprehensive review on J Leverett’s function

the research and development in multi-scale numerical mod- k Thermal conductivity, W/(m·K)
K Permeability, m2
eling and simulation of PEM fuel cells. An overview of
p Pressure, Pa
recent progress in PEM fuel cell modeling has been pro- Ru Universal gas constant, 8.314 J/(mol·K)
vided. Fundamental transport phenomena in PEM fuel cells s Liquid saturation or ice fraction
and the corresponding mathematical formulation of macro- S Source term in transport equations
scale models are analyzed. Various important issues in PEM t Time, s
fuel cell modeling and simulation are examined in detail, in- T Temperature, K
cluding fluid flow and species transport, electron and proton u Fluid velocity and superficial velocity
transport, heat transfer and thermal management, liquid wa- in porous medium, m/s
ter transport and water management, transient response be- Uo Open-circuit potential, V
haviors, and cold-start processes. Key areas for further im- Ww Water molecular weight, kg/mol
provements have also been discussed. Greek
α Transfer coefficient
Keywords PEM fuel cell · Numerical modeling · Multi- ε Porosity
scale simulation · Two-phase transport · Water management Φ Phase potential, V
· Thermal management η Over potential, V
λ Water content
List of symbols κ Proton conductivity, S/m
ρ Density, kg/m3
a Water activity σ Electronic conductivity, S/m
or specific electrochemically active area, m2 /m3 θ Contact angle
c Molar concentration, mol/m3 τ Viscous stress tensor
cp Constant-pressure heat capacity, J /(kg·K)
D Mass diffusivity, m2 /s Superscripts
EW Equivalent weight of membrane, kg/mol
F Faraday constant, 96 487 C/mol eff Effective value
hpc Phase-change parameter ref Reference value
i Current density, A/m2 sat Saturation
j Transfer current density, A/m3 v Vapor

Subscripts
The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (10972197). a Anode
c Cathode or capillary
e Electrolyte
G.-H. Song · H. Meng (¬) i Species
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, ice Ice
Zhejiang University, 310027 Hangzhou, China l Liquid
e-mail: menghua@zju.edu.cn m Mass or membrane
Numerical modeling and simulation of PEM fuel cells: Progress and perspective
s Electron
T Temperature
u Velocity
vi Vapor to ice
vl Vapor to liquid
w Water
λ Water content
1 Introduction
A proton exchange membrane or polymer electrolyte mem-
brane (PEM) fuel cell is an electrochemical device that can
convert chemical energy directly into electric energy. A
PEM fuel cell is considered as a promising alternative power
source for transportation applications owing to its high en-
ergy efficiency and environment-friendly operations. A PEM
fuel cell consists of many different structural components,
mainly including the current-collecting land, gas channel
(GC), gas diffusion layer (GDL), microporous layer (MPL),
and catalyst layer (CL) on both anode and cathode sides, and
the polymer membrane in the middle that separates the two
sides, as schematically shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Schematic of a PEM fuel cell
During PEM fuel cell operations, hydrogen and water
are fed into the anode gas channel, diffuse through the porous
gas diffusion media (GDM), including GDL and MPL, and
eventually reach the anode catalyst layer. In this region, hy-
drogen is dissociated into protons and electrons through an
electrochemical process, called hydrogen oxidation reaction
(HOR). The protons can directly cross the polymer mem-
brane to reach the cathode catalyst layer, but the electrons
are forced to move through the outside circuit to provide the
useful electric work.
On the cathode side, oxygen and water are fed into the
gas channel. They diffuse through the cathode gas diffu-
sion media and arrive at the cathode catalyst layer. In this
region, oxygen is combined with the protons and electrons
319
transferred from the anode, and produces water. This electro-
chemical process is called oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).
The catalyst, generally a platinum alloy, is required to enable
the HOR and ORR electrochemical reactions. Water is also
needed to fully hydrate the polymer membrane in a PEM fuel
cell, because the membrane proton conductivity and conse-
quently cell performance depend strongly on the membrane
water content. During PEM fuel cell operations, the elec-
tric work and water are produced from the overall anodic
and cathodic electrochemical reactions, along with a certain
amount of waste heat.
In the past decades, significant progress has been
achieved in PEM fuel cell research and development, in-
cluding the improved understanding of fundamental trans-
port and electrochemical processes, optimized design of the
membrane-electrode assembly (MEA), and lowered plat-
inum catalyst loading etc. [1–3]. However, before PEM fuel
cell commercialization, a number of obstacles, including the
cell operation reliability and durability, and manufacturing
cost, still have to be overcome. In this area, design and engi-
neering optimization of the cell system plays a crucial role,
and numerical modeling and simulation is an indispensable
tool, as in many other engineering fields.
In this review, significant progresses in numerical mod-
eling and simulation of PEM fuel cells in the past decades are
discussed in detail, as well as major areas requiring further
research and development. This paper is arranged as follows.
An overview of the current status of PEM fuel cell modeling
and simulation is first presented; technical details, including
achievements and deficiencies, in various key components of
PEM fuel cell numerical models are then comprehensively
examined; a concluding remark is finally provided.
2 Overview of PEM fuel cell model development
Many numerical models of PEM fuel cells have been suc-
cessfully developed with increasingly less restrictive as-
sumptions and simplifications in the past decades. Early
numerical models were one-dimensional [4–12]. Modeling
efforts were focused on fundamental electrochemical and
transport phenomena in the gas diffusion layer, catalyst layer,
and membrane. Although these numerical models were
highly simplified, they elucidated the underlying electro-
chemical and transport mechanisms essential for PEM fuel
cell modeling. Therefore, many key achievements in these
one-dimensional models served as crucial building blocks
for the next-generation PEM fuel cell models.
Numerical models of PEM fuel cells were later on
improved to consider gas concentration variations along
the flow direction in gas channels. In these pseudo two-
dimensional numerical models [13–17], distributions of the
chemical species and local current density along the flow di-
rection were examined, and more practical water and thermal
management issues were studied. Further developments in
two-dimensional numerical modeling of PEM fuel cells were