NEW numerical techniques for a three-dimensional liquid-feed direct methanol fuel cell model

In this paper, a three-dimensional two-phase transport model of a liquid-feed direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is studied, where flow, species, charge-transport, and energy equations are simultaneously addressed. Some new numerical techniques are specifically investigated in order to achieve fast and convergent numerical simulation. An updated source term of the water transport equation based on a combination of physical and numerical considerations, and a series of efficient numerical algorithms and discretizations by means of a combined finite element-upwind finite volume method, are designed and analyzed to assist in approaching this target. The three-dimensional numerical simulations demonstrate that the convergent physical solutions can be obtained within hundreds of steps, in contrast to the long-running and even nonconvergent nonlinear iterations operated by standard finite element/volume methods if no new numerical technique is adopted. © 2009 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.