本論文之主要目的為發展質子交換膜燃料電池之電腦模擬及最佳化設計方法。本研究提出質子交換膜燃料電池於單電池與電池堆理論分析模式,求解其內部之電質傳輸現象,並進行最佳化設計。本研究之主題包括(1)燃料電池性能測試實驗,(2)發展燃料電池模擬計算模式,(3)結合最佳化方法與電腦模擬程式,並應用於燃料電池最佳化幾何參數設計。 實驗方面,完成3組單電池及2組電池堆之組裝,並進行性能測試,最後建構500瓦電池堆之系統連接。在數值模擬方面,主要探討質子交換膜燃料電池單電池及電池堆之幾何參數對燃料電池性能之影響。本研究除詳細介紹燃料電池數值模擬方法,及單電池與電池堆分析結果外,亦進行其與單電池與電池堆實驗值之比對,以驗證燃料電池數值模擬之正確性。 最後,本研究結合簡化式共軛梯度法(SCGM)與三維燃料電池單流道電腦模擬,進行燃料電池幾何參數最佳化設計。針對流道開口比(L)、氣體擴散層厚度(tGDL)、及流道深度(h)等幾何設計參數,在不同起始值進行最佳化分析。結果顯示可找出最佳設計組合,並提升電池理論效能。
The aim of thesis is to develop design approach for optimization of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells through numerical simulation. The thesis is developed by integrating a direct problem solver with an optimizer. A commercial computational fluid dynamics code is used as the direct problem solver, which is used to simulate the three-dimensional mass, momentum, and species transport phenomena as well as the electron- and proton-transfer processes taking place in a PEM fuel cell stack or single cell. The topics of this thesis include: (1) Experimental study of the performance of PEM fuel cell, (2) Development of simulation modeling of PEM fuel cell, (3) Optimization for geometric parameters of PEM fuel cell by integrating computational fluid dynamics code with optimization method. Experiments have been conducted to investigate the effects of operation parameters on the performance of PEM fuel cells. For experimental purposes, three single cells and two stacks have been built. In addition, a 500-W power generation system consisting of booster/inverter/converter is successfully constructed. Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the effect on PEM fuel cell performance of geometric parameter variation in the single cell and stack modules. A series of theoretical models as well as numerical predictions are presented. Meanwhile, experimental data regarding the performance of PEMFC single cells and stacks are used to verify the numerical predictions by the numerical simulation. Multi-parameter optimization for the geometric parameters of the PEM fuel cell based on a three-dimensional full cell model is attempted. The simplified conjugate-gradient method (SCGM) is employed to build the optimizer, which is combined with the direct problem solver in order to seek the optimal geometric parameters, including the gas channel width ratio, the gas channel height, and the thickness of the gas diffusion layer. The concept of the approach is described in detail, and results of the optimization process are discussed.