Patent ID: 7829230

Claim:
A method for optimizing a fuel cell diffusion media having a spatially varying mass transport resistance, the method comprising the steps of: a) identifying i) a plurality of operating conditions for a fuel cell in a vehicle, the plurality of operating conditions including a baseline operating condition, ii) at least one fuel cell variable correlated to fuel cell performance, and iii) a desired range of the at least one fuel cell variable; b) determining at least one baseline variable profile for the fuel cell; c) providing a first-pass D/Deff profile for the fuel cell diffusion media; d) applying the first-pass D/Deff profile to a computational model of the fuel cell having the baseline variable profile; e) calculating at least one first-pass variable profile resulting from the application of the first-pass D/Deff profile to the computational model; f) comparing the first-pass variable profile to the desired range of the variable; g) refining the first-pass D/Deff profile if the first-pass variable is not within the desired range, and repeating the steps d) to f) until the first-pass variable profile is within the desired range, wherein a second-pass D/Deff profile is provided; h) determining a plurality of second-pass variable profiles with the second-pass D/Deff profile; i) comparing a relative performance of the fuel cell with the second-pass variable profile and the first-pass variable profile; and j) refining the first-pass D/Deff profile if the performance of the fuel cell with the second-pass variable profile is less desirable than the performance of the fuel cell with the first-pass variable profile, and repeating the steps d) to i) until the fuel cell having the second-pass variable profile has a superior fuel cell performance, wherein an effective D/Deff profile for the fuel cell diffusion media is provided.