Modelagem e simulação de uma célula a combustível alcalina a glicerol direto
Abstract
A wide range of work has been carried out with the aim of improving the operation of
fuel cells and making them applicable in different situations, in which mathematical
modeling and computer simulation are great allies. In the present work, a
comprehensive multidimensional model for simulating direct glycerol fuel cell (DGFC)
was developed, a promising technology that still requires evolution in its study by
computational technique. The model developed in the scope of computational fluid
dynamics corresponds to a complete cell fed by glycerol, including parallel flow
channels, diffuser layers, catalytic regions and anion exchange membrane. The
implementation took place in commercial software, ANSYS / FLUENT, using the
ability to customize equations via UDFs (User Defined Functions). Available
experimental data of current density versus cell potential were used to adjust the
parameters of the ideal model and realistic model of glycerol oxidation at the anode.
With this, it is possible to implement anodic reaction kinetics in the global
computational model as mass flow UDFs and, with the simulations, obtain details of
internal processes such as speed field, fraction of the species involved and their
distribution throughout the cell. It appears that there are significant variations in flow
velocity and mass fractions of the species inside the device, which may result in a
distribution of inhomogeneous current density.
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