Prediction of dry-wet-dry transition in polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Condensation and evaporation fronts co-exist in present-day automotive polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) where low-humidity reactant gases are fed in counterflow. Capturing of such a transition between a single- and a two-phase regime is not only of technological significance, but also represents a great numerical challenge in PEFC modeling. In this work we demonstrate a computational capability to predict the dry-wet-dry transition in a PEFC based on the multiphase mixture (M2) framework. The M2 model is a three-dimensional, two-phase, and multicomponent full-cell model featuring a detailed membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) sub-model. Three-dimensional results on the dry-wet-dry transition under low-humidity operation and in counterflow are presented. The dry-to-wet transition described in this work provides a benchmark problem to develop and test future generation PEFC models.