E. Hontanon et al., Optimisation of flow-field in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells using computational fluid dynamics techniques, J POWER SOU, 86(1-2), 2000, pp. 363-368
Citations number
7
Categorie Soggetti
Physical Chemistry/Chemical Physics","Environmental Engineering & Energy
The purpose of this work was the enhancement of performance of Polymer Elec
trolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) by optimising the gas flow distribution
system. To achieve this, 3D numerical simulations of the gas flow in the a
ssembly, consisting of the fuel side of the bipolar plate and the anode, we
re performed using a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software
, the "FLUENT" package. Two types of flow distributors were investigated: a
grooved plate with parallel channels of the type commonly used in commerci
al fuel cells, and a porous material. The simulation showed that the permea
bility of the gas flow distributor is a key parameter affecting the consump
tion of reactant gas in the electrodes. Fuel utilisation increased when dec
reasing the permeability of the flow distributor. In particular, fuel consu
mption increased significantly when the permeability of the porous material
decreased to values below that of the anode. This effect was not observed
in the grooved plate, which permeability was higher than that of the anode.
Even though the permeability of the grooved plate can be diminished by red
ucing the width of the channels, values lower than 1 mm are difficult to at
tain in practice. The simulation shows that porous materials are more advan
tageous than grooved plates in terms of reactant gas utilisation. (C) 2000
Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.