On the constitutive relations for catalyst coated membrane applied to in-situ fuel cell modeling

The elastic–viscoplastic behavior of catalyst coated membranes (CCMs) used in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells is investigated in this work. Experimental results reveal significant differences between the mechanical properties of a pure perfluorosulfonic acid ionomer membrane and the corresponding CCM under uniaxial tension and cyclic loading. An elastic–viscoplastic constitutive model that is capable of capturing the time dependent response of the CCM at different humidity and temperature conditions is developed and validated against ex-situ experimental results. The validated model is then utilized to simulate the in-situ mechanical response of the CCM when treated as a composite object bonded through the ionomer phase. When compared to a conventional membrane model, the CCM model predicts considerably lower maximum stress and higher plastic strain under typical fuel cell operating conditions and improved plastic strain recovery during hygrothermal unloading. These results reflect the weaker nature of the CCM material which yields at a lower stress than the membrane and may lead to elevated plastic deformation when exposed to hygrothermal cycles in a constrained fuel cell environment. Hence, coupled CCM implementation is generally recommended for finite element modeling of fuel cells. •An elastic–viscoplastic constitutive relation is developed for CCMs.•Membrane based mechanical models may overestimate stresses during cyclic operation.•The CCM model predicts higher plastic strain during hygrothermal loading.•Treatment of the CCM as a composite object is recommended for in-situ simulations.