Patent ID: 8620637

Claim:
A fuel cell simulator for predicting power generation performance of a fuel cell including a membrane-electrode assembly having an electrolyte membrane, a catalyst layer, and a diffusion layer, the fuel cell simulator comprising: a CPU having a model creation unit for modeling the catalyst layer from geometry and property data of the catalyst layer, the geometry data being in the form of at least one of a particle size of a catalyst metal forming the catalyst layer, a particle size of a carbon forming the catalyst layer and an ionomer ratio; and the CPU also having a calculation unit for calculating at least one of power generation state distribution and macro physical property values of the catalyst layer by using a catalyst layer model and establishing simultaneous equations of gas transportation, water production transportation phase change, electric conduction, heat conduction, and catalytic reaction, wherein in the model creation unit, the geometry data is actual image data or numeric data of the catalyst layer, and the property data is actual physical property data of the catalyst layer, the model creation unit models the electrolyte membrane and the diffusion layer from geometry and property data of the electrolyte membrane and the diffusion layer; and the calculation unit calculates at least one of power generation state distribution and macro physical property values of the electrolyte membrane and the diffusion layer by using an electrolyte membrane model and a diffusion layer model and establishing simultaneous equations of gas transportation, water production transportation phase change, electric conduction, heat conduction and catalytic reaction.