Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that rely on the transport of reactants (oxygen and hydrogen) and products (water and heat). These transport processes are coupled with electrochemistry and further complicated by phase change, porous media (gas diffusion electrodes) and a complex geometry. This thesis presents a three-
dimensional, non-isothermal computational model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The model was developed to improve fundamental understanding of transport phenomena in PEMFCs and to investigate the impact of various operation parameters on performance. The model, which was implemented into a Computational Fluid Dynamics code, accounts for all major transport phenomena, including: water and proton transport through the membrane: electrochemical reaction; transport of electrons: transport and phase change of water in the gas diffusion electrodes: temperature variation: diffusion of multi-component gas mixtures in the electrodes: pressure gradients; multi-component connective heat and mass transport in the gas flow channels.