Heat transfer in a fuel cell battery

Abstract

AbstractAnalytical solutions were obtained for temperature distributions in a single adiabatic fuel cell with heat generation by TΔS, I2R, and polarization. With these results it is possible to characterize heat transfer in a battery with convection in the fuel and air streams, and with conduction of heat in three directions, by means of an average temperature for which an analytical solution was also obtained. Although the temperature can be kept within safe limits in low‐power density batteries, the results show that critical dimensions exist beyond which failure by thermal buckling will occur.