Simulation, manufacturing and test of a transparent PEM fuel cell

In this research, a transparent PEM fuel cell is designed and manufactured to visualize the anode and cathode side flow channels and study flooding phenomenon in them. Manufacturing challenges are found, and cell design is simulated prior to manufacturing. Restrictions are expressed in the first place and then practical solutions are presented to cope with them; materials and dimensions are then determined accordingly. As the second step, the cell’s operation is simulated and the polarization curve is extracted using a steady-state two-phase computation fluid dynamics model. After the manufacturing of all components, due to the high influence of the torque of the bolts on the leakage, lifetime and operation of the cell, this parameter is optimized using polarization curves. A torque of 1N.m for the bolts is found to be optimum. In order to validate the numerical model, the polarization curve of the model is compared with that of the experiment. An error of 6.76% demonstrates the suitable accuracy of the numerical model. Finally, the accumulated water on the cathode side is detected using direct visualization and image processing technique.