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Experimental Study of Three Channel Designs with Model Comparison in a PEM Fuel Cell
Author(s) -
Mojica F.,
Rahman Md. A.,
Mora J. M.,
Ocon J. D.,
Chuang P.Y. A.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
fuel cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1615-6854
pISSN - 1615-6846
DOI - 10.1002/fuce.202000002
Subject(s) - proton exchange membrane fuel cell , pressure drop , inlet , flow (mathematics) , volumetric flow rate , mechanics , channel (broadcasting) , two phase flow , nuclear engineering , materials science , steady state (chemistry) , environmental science , fuel cells , computer science , mechanical engineering , chemistry , chemical engineering , engineering , physics , telecommunications
The flow field is an integral part of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. In this work, three flow‐field designs, including straight parallel, multiple channel serpentine, and single channel serpentine, are studied systematically to investigate their effects on fuel cell performance. To evaluate the characteristics of each design, relative humidity and flow rate are parametrically adjusted to evaluate performance experimentally. A finite element‐based 3D steady state, single phase COMSOL computational model is employed to analyze reactant distribution and fuel cell performance. The single channel serpentine exhibits the best performance under the greatest variety of operating conditions, but also experiences the highest inlet‐outlet pressure differentials. This study shows that parallel channel design has more evenly distributed reactant concentration, but is prone to liquid water accumulation, which requires high flow rate to remain stable operation under wet conditions. In summary, the multiple channel serpentine design can provide a reasonable balance between pressure drop and flow distribution with robust fuel cell operation.