Dr. Akira Nishimura,
Associate Professor, Division of Mechanical Engineering, Mie University, Japan.

Speech title: Prediction of Temperature Distribution in Single Cell of PEFC Operated Under High Temperature

Abstract: Though polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) is one of promising environmental power generation technologies in near future, the drying and moistness condition of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and catalyst layer (CL) affects the power generation performance and lifespan of PEFC strongly. Therefore, it is important to clarify the temperature distribution of interface between PEM and CL which is named as reaction surface in this study. However, the reaction filed is disturbed and the temperature censor is damaged if the temperature of reaction surface is measured directly by the censor, e.g. thermocouple. In this study, the temperature of separator which is far from the reaction surface is measured by non-contact thermograph. To predict the temperature of reaction surface, this study proposes the heat balance model using the measured temperature. In addition, this study also predicts the temperature of reaction surface by the numerical simulation using CFD software which solves the equation on mass transfer, electrochemical reaction, energy conservation and charge transport as well as heat transfer. As a result, the difference between the predicted temperature between the heat balance model and CFD software is below 0.5 ℃. Consequently, it is confirmed that the proposed heat balance model has high accuracy.