Journal
ENERGY
Volume 182, Issue -, Pages 656-672Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.06.089
Keywords
PEM fuel cell performance enhancement; Converging and diverging flow field; Two-phase flow; Numerical simulation
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In this study, two-phase flow in a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell with the converging diverging flow field was investigated using numerical simulation. A transient, three-dimensional, two-phase flow, and multi-component model, as well as an agglomerate model for oxygen reduction in the cathode catalyst layer, was employed to simulate the performance of the cathode half-cell. The numerical implementation was conducted by developing a new solver in OpenFOAM by the author. An augmentation about 28.2% was observed in the oxygen mass fraction at COL/Channel interface for a PEM fuel cell with a converging-diverging angle of 0.3 degrees in comparison with the reference cell (straight channels). Moreover, the average of liquid water saturation was decreased by 3.61% in the middle cross-section of gas channels and 9.4% near to the outlet region for reviewed converging-diverging cases. Finally, to investigate the improvement of the cell performance, polarization curve and net output power were presented. It was found that the using converging-diverging flow field was more effective at high current densities, while it had a minor effect at low current densities. The net output power of the PEM fuel cell with converging-diverging channels was enhanced by more than 10% compared with the base cell. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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