TY - JOUR

T1 - Electro-chemo-mechanical induced fracture modeling in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis for sustainable hydrogen production

AU - Aldakheel, Fadi

AU - Kandekar, Chaitanya

AU - Bensmann, Boris

AU - Dal, Hüsnü

AU - Hanke-Rauschenbach, Richard

N1 - Funding Information: The corresponding author Fadi Aldakheel (FA) appreciates the scientific support of the sub-project C4 within the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany ( DFG , German Research Foundation) in the Collaborative Research Center CRC 1153 (Project ID ). FA would like to thank Prof. Peter Wriggers (LUH Hannover) and Dr. Michel Suermann (LUH Hannover, meanwhile with Siemens Energy) for the fruitful discussions and comments. RHR and BB gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany in the framework of HoKaWe (Project ID 03EI3029B).

PY - 2022/10/1

Y1 - 2022/10/1

N2 - This work provides a framework for predicting fracture of catalyst coated membrane (CCM) due to coupled electro-chemo-mechanical degradation processes in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) cells. Electrolysis in the catalyst layer (CL) bulk, diffusion of Hydrogen proton through the membrane (MEM), and mechanical compression at the interface with the porous transport layer (PTL) generate micro-cracks that influence the catalyst degradation. Based on our experimental observations, we propose a new theoretical formulations along with the constitutive framework to help understanding and providing a reliable description of the stated multi-physics problem. The computational modeling of crack formation in the CL bulk is achieved in a convenient way by continuum phase-field formulations to fracture, which are based on the regularization of sharp crack discontinuities. The model performance is demonstrated through two representative boundary value problems, representing the cell setup and working of the PEMWE cell.

AB - This work provides a framework for predicting fracture of catalyst coated membrane (CCM) due to coupled electro-chemo-mechanical degradation processes in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) cells. Electrolysis in the catalyst layer (CL) bulk, diffusion of Hydrogen proton through the membrane (MEM), and mechanical compression at the interface with the porous transport layer (PTL) generate micro-cracks that influence the catalyst degradation. Based on our experimental observations, we propose a new theoretical formulations along with the constitutive framework to help understanding and providing a reliable description of the stated multi-physics problem. The computational modeling of crack formation in the CL bulk is achieved in a convenient way by continuum phase-field formulations to fracture, which are based on the regularization of sharp crack discontinuities. The model performance is demonstrated through two representative boundary value problems, representing the cell setup and working of the PEMWE cell.

KW - Catalyst coated membrane (CCM)

KW - Experimental observations

KW - Multi-physics problem

KW - Porous transport layer (PTL)

KW - Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE)

KW - Sustainable hydrogen production

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137715200&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cma.2022.115580

DO - 10.1016/j.cma.2022.115580

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85137715200

VL - 400

JO - Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering

JF - Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering

SN - 0045-7825

M1 - 115580

ER -