Page 164 - Introduction to Transfer Phenomena in PEM Fuel Cells

Heat Transfer Phenomena 153
In general, the heat dissipation results in heating of the gases and the
cooling of water in the bipolar plate. Thus, global modeling allows the
coupling to modeling of mass and charge transfer along the supply channels.
This modeling can also provide information on the risk of saturation. There
may then be a risk of water condensation, which may restrict the access of
gases to the electrodes, thus causing a sharp drop in the performance of the
fuel cell.
The consumption of reactants and the evacuation of heat and water in the
flow channels are responsible for the significant heterogeneous distribution
of current densities in the cell.

In our case, which is just given as an example, the heat produced is
evacuated by the circulation of air between the bipolar plates. It can, by a
different technique, be evacuated through the flow of supply gas and water
in cooling channels in the bipolar plate. It would then be interesting to
evaluate the heating of the gases and water between the inlet and the outlet
of the bipolar plate in order to be able to describe the temperature variations
in the cell.