Proton exchange membrane fuel cell technology is constantly advancing, and today we are witnessing a dramatic increase in the modelling of these cells. Despite research efforts, most of the system models developed do not take into account the temperature variation inside the fuel cell, even though it affects the performance and efficiency of the cell. In order to accelerate developments in this field, an innovative thermal model of a fuel cell with a proton exchange membrane is developed in this thesis. The model describes the temperature distribution in solids and gases throughout the cell and addresses the thermal influence of solids on gases and vice versa. The above thermal model, which is the main contribution of the thesis, was then coupled to a 1D transient isothermal electrochemical model. Finally, the coupled model was verified, but instead of the basic idea of validation, we focused on the verification of the calibration parameters, due to the exceeding scope of the thesis. The developed model thus provides insights into the complex inter-causal chain between temperature, electrochemical reactions and mass transport within the cell, which is crucial for the development and optimisation of fuel cell technologies for a wide range of applications.
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