Fuel cells are a promising alternative to the current widely used combustion engines. The development of fuel cell stacks for mobile applications with higher power density and reduced production costs as well is necessary. The design of the flow fields play an important role during this development. A suitable flow field allows a fitted dimensioning and construction of the whole fuel cell stack as well as an efficient operating.

Especially the fluid phenomena have influence on all components of a fuel cell. The optimization of the bipolar plate is significant because it is responsible for the electrical connection between the cells of a stack, the supply of the reaction gases and the removal of the reaction products and the heat of reaction. The designing of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack for mobile applications is a challenge because of the high power density and integration of functions. Regarding this aspects computational simulations are established for an investigation of these phenomena.

In this project a detailed computational model of a PEM fuel cell has to be developed. With the use of this model an optimized dimensioning of the fuel cell stack considering various aspects is derived.