A Computational Simulation of the Performance of a Zinc-Air Fuel Cell with Operational Condition

The numerical analysis for the electrochemical performance with operational conditions was carried out for a zinc-air fuel cell(ZAFC). The Nernst-Planck equation with a boundary condition of Butler-Volmer type was adopted to describe electrochemical effects of mass transfer, migration, kinetics of electrode. The Navier-Stokes equation, coupling to the Nernst-Planck equation, is also applied to describe external air flow fields. Polarization curves had been investigated under various operational conditions, such as air flow field, electrolyte concentration and temperature. It has been derived several design factors fo a ZAFC from our study to maximize the cell performance.