Performance Investigation of Proton‐Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell with Dean Flow Channels

Abstract

Herein, a novel fuel cell flow field with 3π/2 radian Dean flow channels and its impact on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells are presented. With a multidisciplinary numerical model, flow characteristics, concentration distribution, and current density contour in the fuel cell are compared between straight and Dean flow channel cases. The unstable vortices formed in the Dean flow channels are shown to enhance mass transfer of both reactants and water. As a result, although the voltage under low current density is slightly lower than that of fuel cells with straight channels, the output performance under high current density is observably improved. It is also found that the enhancement of oxygen transport with the Dean channel is more significant at relatively small cathode stoichiometry. In addition, by reducing the gas diffusion layer porosity, the membrane is kept at high humidity, yielding an improvement in power output and stability of the fuel cell at low cathode inlet pressure operation.

A parametric numerical study on the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with intermediate‐blocked interdigitated flow field designs

“…These two major issues can be reduced by proper flow field design and also optimization of the geometric parameters of fuel cells [2,3]. Manufacturers aim to optimize the flow field feature and dimensions so that the reactant delivery to the reaction sites is improved and thus the PEMFC performance is enhanced [4,5]. In this regard, configuring the flow patterns in co-flow and counter-flow configurations and using flow channels with various shape cross sections are among the typical ways to alter the flow characteristics within the fuel cell [6,7].…”

The Role of Porous Carbon Inserts on the Performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells: A Parametric Numerical Study

“…Different strategies have been proposed and implemented in the literature in order to address the problem of water management and transport in PEM fuel cells, [13,14] the most important of which is flow-field design. [15][16][17][18] The flow-field design not only affects water management but also the distribution of reactants in fuel cells. [7] The maldistribution of reactants in PEMFC stacks causes nonuniform distribution of current density, localized hot spots, and performance degradation.…”