The effects of cathode flow channel size and operating conditions on PEM fuel performance: A CFD modelling study and experimental demonstration

Carcadea, Elena; Varlam, Mihai; Ingham, D.B.; Ismail, M.S.; Pătularu, Laurenţiu; Marinoiu, Adriana; Schitea, Dorin

doi:10.1002/er.4068

Cited by 52 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…It can be observed from Figures that the difference between the values of highest current density in ECSSFF and triple serpentine is increasing as the RH of reactant gasses is increased. In general, all these trends of effect of %RH and temperature on the cell performance are qualitatively consistent with the studies reported by Ozen et al, Carcadea et al, and Zhang et al…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…It can be observed from Figures 3-6 that the difference between the values of highest current density in ECSSFF and triple serpentine is increasing as the RH of reactant gasses is increased. In general, all these trends of effect of %RH and temperature on the cell performance are qualitatively consistent with the studies reported by Ozen et al, 30 Carcadea et al, 31 and Zhang et al 32 Figure 7A,B shows the I-V and I-P plots of the PEMFC with both the two flow field designs used on cathode side operated at a constant temperature of 70°C and different %RH of the reactant gas streams. It can be clearly seen from these figures that the ECSSFF exhibits superior performance especially at lower voltages in extending the power of drawing more current load.…”

Section: Performance Analysis Of Pemfc With Ecssff Design and Perfosupporting

confidence: 88%

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Detailed analysis of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with enhanced cross‐flow split serpentine flow field design

Abdulla

Patnaikuni

2019

Int J Energy Res

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Summary Most generally used flow channel designs in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are serpentine flow designs as single channels or as multiple channels due to their advantages over parallel flow field designs. But these flow fields have inherent problems of high pressure drop, improper reactant distribution, and poor water management, especially near the U‐bends. The problem of inadequate water evacuation and improper reactant distribution become more severe and these designs become worse at higher current loads (low voltages). In the current work, a detailed performance study of enhanced cross‐flow split serpentine flow field (ECSSFF) design for PEMFC has been conducted using a three‐dimensional (3‐D) multiphase computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model. ECSSFF design is used for cathode part of the cell and parallel flow field on anode part of the cell. The performance of PEMFC with ECSSFF has been compared with the performance of triple serpentine flow design on cathode side by keeping all other parameters and anode side flow field design similar. The performance is evaluated in terms of their polarization curves. A parametric study is carried out by varying operating conditions, viz, cell temperature and inlet humidity on air and fuel side. The ECSSFF has shown superior performance over the triple serpentine design under all these conditions.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Performance Analysis Of Pemfc With Ecssff Design and Perfosupporting

confidence: 88%

Detailed analysis of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with enhanced cross‐flow split serpentine flow field design

Abdulla

Patnaikuni

2019

Int J Energy Res

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“…Equation is the continuity equation where the calculate method of mixture density is provided in Equation . The source terms for the consumption of hydrogen, oxygen and the creation of water can be calculated by Equations , , and , respectively

\nabla \cdot ((), ρ \overset{u}{true}) = S_{{normalH}_{2}} + S_{O_{2}} + S_{H_{2} O},

ρ_{mix} = \frac{P}{italicRT \sum \frac{Y_{i}}{M_{i}}},

S_{H_{2}} = - \frac{J_{italican}}{2 F} M_{H_{2}},

S_{O_{2}} = - \frac{J_{italicca}}{4 F} M_{O_{2}},

S_{H_{2} O} = + \frac{J_{italicca}}{2 F} M_{H_{2} O} .

…”

Section: Computational Detailsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The energy performance improvement of a PEM fuel cell with various chaotic flowing channels

et al. 2019

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Summary To improve the energy performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), novel chaotic structures are proposed and numerically evaluated for replacing straight types in the serpentine gas diffusion flow channels. The numerical model is verified by the available experimental data. Nine cases (chaotic channels, Cases A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2, E1, and E2) and a baseline case (straight flow channel, Case A1) are evaluated, and the detailed temperature and the flow characteristics are presented and analyzed. The influences of the main design parameters including the corner angle, bends number, and datum surface number are also analyzed and concluded. It is found that the newly proposed chaotic structures can improve not only the temperature uniformity, but also the maximum output power and the energy efficiency of the PEMFC. Compared with a traditional PEMFC, the power output of the new PEMFCs with chaotic flowing channels can be improved by 6.26% and the efficiency of PEMFC can be promoted by 8.40%.

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“…This indicates that cell 33 is flooding, but cell 15 is not flooding. Increasing the velocity of the gas in the flow channel allows PEMFCs to perform better . The rapid flow of hydrogen enhances the mass transfer of hydrogen at the beginning of the purge process.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study and mitigation of abnormal behavior of cell voltage in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack

Luo

Jian

2019

Int J Energy Res

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Summary The aim of this study is to investigate the abnormal behavior of cell voltage in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack and a mitigation strategy. The proposed strategy is simple and requires only a three‐way solenoid valve to replace the direct way solenoid valve of the original system. It is applied to a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack with a dead‐ended anode to verify its validity. The behavior of the cell voltages in the stack is discussed in detail, especially the cell reversal process. The results show that the proposed strategy can significantly reduce the severity of hydrogen starvation. And the maximum power of the stack is increased by 10.67%. It is a sudden increase related to cell reversal mitigation. Uneven hydrogen distribution is the cause of low cell voltage and cell reversal. This strategy increases the cell voltage by increasing the hydrogen content in the anode flow channel downstream. It also significantly reduces the fluctuations in cell voltage and improves the uniformity of the cell voltage. This experimental study contributes to mitigate hydrogen starvation in cells of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stacks in application.

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The effects of cathode flow channel size and operating conditions on PEM fuel performance: A CFD modelling study and experimental demonstration

Cited by 52 publications

References 34 publications

Detailed analysis of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with enhanced cross‐flow split serpentine flow field design

Detailed analysis of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with enhanced cross‐flow split serpentine flow field design

The energy performance improvement of a PEM fuel cell with various chaotic flowing channels

Experimental study and mitigation of abnormal behavior of cell voltage in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack

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