Enhancing the Precision of PEM Fuel Cell Numerical Models Using Temperature Field Mapping

One of the most effective methods for analyzing complex processes in proton exchange membrane fuel cells is the combination of computational fluid dynamics and experimental analysis. Using state-of-the-art numerical modelling and current scan shunt current density and temperature mapping techniques, this paper focuses on investigating how to further improve the ability to create accurate numerical digital twins. The performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells is significantly affected by the temperature distribution, especially at high current densities. While polarization curve matching is a method commonly used to validate numerical models, along with isothermal boundary conditions. However, this study shows that similar overall performance of different numerical models can mask significant differences in current density and temperature distributions. Computational fluid dynamics were used to compare numerical fuel cell simulations with constant and experimentally derived temperature boundary conditions. The results show the importance of considering current density distribution for model validation and the importance of unbiased experimental data. In this study, it is shown that our current scan shunt method, which accurately measures the operating temperatures, does not show an accurate distribution of current density along the active area of the cell compared to other experimental work. However, our numerical model shows very good agreement with the experimental data of other researchers. This suggests that our experimental setup needs to be recalibrated and improved for future measurements.