Seminar Dept. of Mathematics (Wednesday, October 6, 2021 @ 11:15 AM)
by
Building 61, Room 208
Mathematical Modeling, Simulation, and Optimization for Hydrogen Fuel Cells
Date: Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Time: 11:15 AM
Location: Building 61, Room 208
Speaker:
Dr. Jamal Husain Al-smail
Department of Mathematics,
College of Computing and Mathematics
KFUPM, Saudi Arabia.
Abstract
A hydrogen fuel cell is an energy converter device; it converts the chemical energy of reactants to electricity through electrochemical reactions. Yet, these reactions may not be taking place uniformly over the catalytic sites which reduce the productivity of the cell. We introduce a solution that makes the electrochemical reaction uniform over the catalyst. For this, we first introduce a mathematical model for reacting oxygen-hydrogen gases in the cathode gas diffusion layer (GDL). We incorporate the model with an optimization problem to improve fluid ow and reactions in the cell. The model is a two-dimensional, nonlinearly coupled system of Darcy, continuity, and convection-diffusion equations, incorporated with suitable boundary conditions modeling electrochemical reactions in the cathode catalyst. Our optimization problem aims to find an optimal porosity design of the GDL, such that the oxygen-hydrogen reaction rates become even over the cathode catalyst. Our numerical results show that the GDL designed with optimized porosity can uniformly distribute the oxygen molecules over the catalytic sites, resulting in a uniform electrochemical reaction rate. A fruitful outcome of the optimal porosity design helps to stabilize the oxygen-hydrogen reaction in the cell by limiting heat and water accumulation.
