Experimental and Numerical Studies of Enhanced Interdigitated Flow Field for PEM Fuel Cells
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 4
Abstract
The presence of blockages in the flow field (FF) of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) increases the mass transport of reactants toward the catalyst layer regions and improves cell performance. In this paper, the effects of channel blockage in a conventional interdigitated FF of PEMFCs are investigated both numerically and experimentally. The tested cell contains a active area tested at four air flow rates—0.4, 0.7, 1.0, and 1.5 standard liters per minute (slpm). For numerical modeling, a three-dimensional simulation of a repeating unit of a whole cell was used. Blocks were placed in a staggered arrangement along the neighboring flow channels in order to push reacting species into the gas diffusion layer uniformly. The numerical and experimental data showed good agreement. In this paper, the influence of flow channel blockages is analyzed on velocity contours, the distribution of reactants and local current density over catalyst layer, and polarization and power density curves. Blockages increase the pressure drop along the flow channels and also balance of plant pumping power that drives the working fluid within the FF. Hence, the effect of indentation on pressure drop and pumping power is also measured. The results show that channels blocking at 1.5 slpm improve the limiting current density by 9% and enhance the maximum net power (generated power from which the pumping power is subtracted) by 22%.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
Ulm University, Germany, is highly acknowledged for allowing the usage of the academic version of ANSYS FLUENT.
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Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 4 • August 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 27, 2020
Accepted: Feb 24, 2021
Published online: Jun 12, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Nov 12, 2021
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