4.3 Article

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells performance enhancement using bipolar channel indentation

Journal

JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Volume 28, Issue 1, Pages 365-376

Publisher

KOREAN SOC MECHANICAL ENGINEERS
DOI: 10.1007/s12206-013-0983-0

Keywords

Channel indentation; Computational fluid dynamics; Fuel cell performance enhancement; Proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Funding

  1. Renewable Energy Organization of Iran (SUNA)
  2. Iran National Science Foundation (INSF)

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The influence of bipolar channel indentation on the performance enhancement of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is studied using three-dimensional computation of a whole single cell. It is assumed that the cell operates under a fixed dry condition of 80 degrees C, 1 atm, and inlets' relative humidity of 10%. Hence the sole influence of channel-bed shapes on the cell performance was considered. Three straight channels with different bed shapes were considered, namely, flat and indented (including semicircular and wavy) channel-beds. It is observed that the channel-bed shapes directly influence the fluid mechanics of the flow field within the channels, such as the magnitude and direction of the velocity vectors, pressure variations along the channels, and the consumption rates of oxygen and hydrogen within the catalyst layer. The results reveal that gas flow channel indentations in the anode and cathode sides enhance the net transport of reacting species through the porous layers toward the catalyst layer. The improvement of the cell due to channel indentation is observed to be in the range 18-22%.

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