Abstract
The crossover of nitrogen and oxygen from cathode to anode aggravates the non-uniformity inside dead-end
anode proton exchange membrane fuel cell (DEA-PEMFC), inducing some other effects, such as carbon corrosion,
to cause irreversible damage to catalyst. Therefore, developing a purge strategy according to the non-uniformity is
necessary to improve its stability. In this study, the effects of operating parameters on the uneven electrical-thermalwater
performance are investigated based on a three-dimensional transient model of DEA-PEMFC. Afterwards, a
purge optimization is carried out based on the uneven distribution of field variables. The results show that the
calculated standard deviation (STDEV) of overvoltage is reduced first and then increased quickly for all the cases.
Therefore, the purge will start when the STDEV approaches the minimum value, to avoid the irreversible damage to
DEA-PEMFC, achieving high-stability output performance meanwhile. On this basis, the purge interval is
optimized to 100 s which is suitable for almost all the discussed cases. The purge duration is reduced to 0.2 s. In
this situation, the minimum voltage is decreased by about 0.95% compared with the maximum value, indicating a
good voltage stability. This study is beneficial to provide guidance for the efficient and long-term operation of
DEA-PEMFC.