Fuel Cell Bionic Flow Slab Design

Fuel cells possessing high potency and low pollution are well known and are considered the new generation of power technology. This study presents a novel bionic concept flow slab design to improve fuel cell performance. A series of 2D simulations was executed at Re = 10 and 100 for the bionic flow and traditional flow slabs. In addition, the effect of aspect ratio was studied using 3D simulation. Numerical results obtained show that this novel bionic flow slab design will exhibit better performance than traditional flow slabs regardless of Reynolds numbers and aspect ratios because it possesses a more uniform velocity and a lower pressure drop. Finally, the performance in the bionic flow slab's reaction area was determined to be superior. These findings show that the bionic concept and flow slab design addressed in this paper will be useful in enhancing fuel cell performance. [DOI: 10.1115/1.3009281]