Patent ID: 7627460

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of modeling mass transfer and/or heat transport processes in a fuel-cell stack, the method comprising the steps of sequentially: modeling a selected region of the stack with at least two fluid components separated from one another by solid material by use of a computer; transforming each fluid component of the selected region into a respective auxiliary volume in which all of the fluid components and solid material in the region are assembled additionally and whose outer cell corresponds to that of the region; dividing each auxiliary volume in the same way into a lattice with individual lattice elements so that the smallest dimension of at least one of the lattice elements is twice as great as the corresponding local hydraulic diameter in the selected region of the device; linking each lattice element of a first of the lattices by references with a respective lattice element of the other lattice so that linked or coupled computing lattices result; implementing the exchange between the fluids in the fuel-cell stack via the references of the respective component lattices, whereby a model is generated that simulates the operation of the fuel-cell stack.