Premium
Effect of flow field design on the performance of elevated‐temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells
Author(s) -
Sinha Puneet K.,
Wang ChaoYang,
Beuscher Uwe
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.1257
Subject(s) - isothermal process , electrolyte , inlet , flow (mathematics) , humidity , work (physics) , relative humidity , fuel cells , materials science , field (mathematics) , polymer , mechanical engineering , chemical engineering , nuclear engineering , environmental science , mechanics , chemistry , thermodynamics , composite material , engineering , physics , mathematics , electrode , pure mathematics
In our previous work, operation of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) at 95°C was investigated in detail and it was found that dry operation of PEFC at elevated temperatures makes the parallel flow field design a viable design option for high temperature applications such as for automobiles. In this work, a three‐dimensional, non‐isothermal PEFC model is used to compare the performance of a 25 cm 2 fuel cell with serpentine and parallel flow field design operated at 95°C under various inlet humidity conditions. Numerical results show that the parallel flow field provides better and more uniformly distributed performance over the whole active area which makes the parallel flow field a better design compared to the serpentine flow field for PEFCs operated at elevated temperature and low inlet relative humidity. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.