Effects of difference flow channel designs on Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell using 3-D Model

Abstract

This research was studied to design of flow field on Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell for distributions in reaction gas. The design of flow field was studied the effects of channel configurations of flow field plates on the performance of a PEMFC. Effects of widths, length and curve channel of a flow field plate were studied in an effort to optimize the dimensions of channel. It was assumed that the development of these design techniques with CFD will require. This study used three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was investigated the effects of serpentine flow channel designs on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. This model was validated by the experiments. The numerical results were provided understanding the effect of flow field pattern design on performance of the fuel cell. This led us to a better design of gas flow field, which improves the gas distribution and water management. This research will investigate the relationship between channel length, channel curvature and characteristics of flow field with pressure drop, velocity distribution by using numerical model. The experiments will performed to verify the numerical predictions on polarization curve and power curve. The output from this research will enlight our on fundamental knowledge, which can be applied on design and operate the fuel cell. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.