Muhammad Arif

I am a Mechanical engineer with more than five years of research experience in fuel cells and electrolysers. I have also completed a PhD degree from school of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering of RMIT University, Australia in 2021. My area of research was hydrogen energy storage system with a focus on the Hydrogen based proton exchange membrane unitized regenerative fuel cell (PEM-URFC) stack.

I have  completed a PhD degree from school of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering of RMIT University, Australia in 2021. My area of research was hydrogen energy storage system with a focus on the Hydrogen based proton exchange membrane unitized regenerative fuel cell (PEM-URFC) stack. I have worked in the following areas during my Ph.D., research:

• Development of a systematic procedure for the calibration of numerical model for PEM fuel cell modelling using experimental data to find the estimated values of the parameters that are related to the performance of catalysts such as exchange current densities and coefficients of charge transfer.
• Studying the performance of PEM-URFC with GDLs of different hydrophobicity.
• Quantification of relative effects of the blockage of electrodes pores and covering catalyst
  active sites by liquid water of PEM fuel cell performance.
• Demonstration of a procedure for using a comprehensive 3D modelling approach for
  diagnosing the performance limiting factors of already fabricated PEM fuel cells or PEM-
  URFCs in fuel cell mode with experimental comparison.
• Application of the ANSYS PEM Fuel Cell Module as a design tool for selecting best performing channels configurations of the bipolar plates for the future fabrication of a single-cell PEM-URFC.

I have published six (6) journal articles in the top ranked journals related to hydrogen energy (Q1 journals) and presented my research work in few international conferences, as well. 

After completion of my PhD, I worked as Post-Doc Research fellow on the project titled: “A prototype portable, rechargeable and silent power supply based on a reversible hydrogen fuel cell”, which was funded by Defense Innovation Hub (DIH), Australia for one year. My responsibilities in this project were:

• Assisting in the DIH research project, with emphasis on CFD (ANSYS fluent) simulation modelling of the single-cell, two-cell, five-cell, and ten-cell PEM-URFC stacks to identify the problem of reduction in stack performance with increasing number of cells per stack.
• CFD (ANSYS fluent) simulation modelling to develop a cooling system for the single-cell, two-cell, five-cell, and ten-cell PEM-URFC stacks
• Experimental testing of the single-cell, two-cell, five-cell, and ten-cell PEM-URFC stacks under different inlet gasses flow rates, humidities, and temperatures.
• Experimental testing of the single cell PEM-URFC with different active areas and catalyst loadings.
• Experimental testing of the single cell PEM-URFC with GDLs of different hydrophobicity.
• Experimental testing of the single cell PEM-URFC under different operating conditions in Electrolyser mode.
• Drawing of fuel cell components, single cell stacks and multiple cell stacks using CAD softwares SolidWorks, CATIA, AutoCAD.
• Data analysis by using Phython 
• Selection and purchasing of different components related to the fabrication of PEM URFC stacks such as bipolar plates, electrodes, GDLs and different accessories.
• Assembling and Disassembling of PEM-URFC stacks.
• Numerical modelling of bipolar plates with different number of serpentine gas flow channels.
• Collection, interpretation, and presentation of experimental and simulation data to the team members in a weekly team meeting.
• Assisting in writing quarterly progress reports and milestone reports, focusing on the modelling and experimental work conducted.
• Liaising with research students contributing to the projects.
• Publishing of high-quality articles in high impact journals, consistent with RMIT’s intellectual property obligations set out in the primary contract for the DIH project.

I have completed a PhD degree from school of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering of RMIT University, Australia in 2021. My area of research was hydrogen energy storage system with a focus on the Hydrogen based proton exchange membrane unitized regenerative fuel cell (PEM-URFC) stack.