Page 116 - 00. Complete Version - Progress Report IPEN 2014-2016

116 Renewable Energies | Progress Report

The first study in fuel cell simulation was made on gas fluxes for different flow channels (Fig.
11), Nowadays the simulation has been made in a complete fuel cell (Fig. 12). In this case,
many chemical phenomena are involved depending on which layer is on study, heat trans-
fer, gas flux in porous media and flow channels, electrochemical reactions (Fig. 13).

0.8 mm 0.8 mm 0.8 mm Figure 11. Channel
cross sections and
dimensions: (a)
rectangular, (b)
trapezoidal and
0.8 mm (c) stepped.

0.4 mm

MEA MEA MEA
0.8 mm 1.05 mm 1.05 mm

Figure12. A complete
fuel cell with two gas
flow channels, two
gas diffusion layers,
two catalytic layers
and a membrane.

Figure 13. Detail
of the layers of
Catalyst a fuel cell.
O2 Channels Layers (CLs)
Cathode

Membrane Anode

H2 Channels Gas Diffusion
Layers (GDLs)
z
y x

Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares