This work presents the development

This work presents the development of a 1D model describing water and charge transportthrough the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) in the fuel cell. The considered drivingforces are electrical potential, concentration and pressure gradients. The membraneproperties such as water diffusion and electro-osmotic coefficients, water sorption andionic conductivity are treated as temperature dependent functions. The dependencies ofdiffusion and electro-osmotic coefficients on the membrane water concentration aredescribed by linear functions. The membrane conductivity is computed in the frameworkof the percolation theory under consideration that the conducting phase in the PEM isformed by a hydrated functional groups and absorbed water. This developed membranemodel was implemented in the CFD code AVL FIRE using 1D/3D coupling. The simulatedpolarization curves at various humidification of the cathode are found in good agreementwith the experiments thus confirming the validity of the model.