Modeling of hydro-thermo-mechanical behavior of Nafion NRE212 for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells using the Finite Viscoplasticity Theory Based on Overstress for Polymers (FVBOP)

The primary aim of this work is to present the modifications made to the Finite Viscoplasticity Theory Based on Overstress for Polymers (FVBOP). This is a unified state variable theory and the proposed changes are designed to account for humidity and temperature effects relevant to the modeling of the hydrothermal deformation behavior of ionomer membranes used in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC). Towards that end, the flow function, which is responsible for conferring rate dependency in FVBOP, is modified. A secondary objective of this work was to investigate the feasibility of using the storage modulus obtained by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) in place of the elasticity modulus obtained from conventional tensile/compressive tests, and find the correlation between the storage modulus and the elasticity modulus. The numerical simulations were juxtaposed against data from tensile monotonic loading and unloading experiments on perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) membrane Nafion NRE212 samples which are used extensively as a membrane material in PEMFC. The deformation behavior was modeled at four different temperatures (298, 323, 338, and 353 K - all values below the glass transition temperature of Nafion) and at three water content levels (3, 7 and 8 % swelling). The effects of strain rate, temperature, and hydration were captured well with the modified FVBOP model.