Numerical and experimental investigation on effects of inlet humidity and fuel flow rate and oxidant on the performance on polymer fuel cell

Highlights: • The impact of alteration in humidification on performance of fuel cell. • The impact of variation of temperature on performance of fuel cell. • The effects of using pure oxygen on the polarity curve are studied. • Fuel cell has been investigated both experimentally and numerically. - Abstract: Considering the importance of water management in a fuel cell and in order to increase the rate of the electro-chemical process in fuel cells with polymer membrane, it is required to optimize the humidity and inlet flow rates on anode and cathode sides. In this study, the impact of alteration in humidification and inlet flow rates on performance improvements for polymer membrane fuel cells is investigated both experimentally and numerically. To obtain the objective, employing the results from experiments and simulations, polarity curve and power density are produced and further used to conduct the desired investigations. In addition, through the conducted simulations the effects of using pure oxygen in the cathode side and inlet gas temperatures on the polarity curve is studied. The results demonstrate that an increase in humidity of the inlet gases will lead to performance amelioration in the cell, due to reduction in ionic resistance at the membrane. Furthermore, with the aforementioned increment; molar fractions of hydrogen and oxygen are decreased through the channel which results in produced water increment. Amplification in inlet flow rates to a certain level will improve the penetration possibility for gaseous forms leading to betterment of the cell performance in this specified range. Performance improvements with inlet gases temperature increment conclude other results of this study.