IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v134y2017icp61-73.html

Thermal investigation of a PEM fuel cell with cooling flow field

Author

Listed:
  • Rahgoshay, S.M.
  • Ranjbar, A.A.
  • Ramiar, A.
  • Alizadeh, E.

Abstract

Efficient operation of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is hugely dependent on an effective cooling system. Nonuniformity of temperature causes a varying rate of electrochemical reactions at different places causing hot spot formation which decreases the PEM fuel cell lifetime. In this study, PEMFC is simulated with cooling flow field simultaneously. Two conventional serpentine and parallel types of flow field of cooling plates are considered and compared with typical isothermal model (without cooling flow field) used in Ansys Fluent software. This comparison based on effective physical parameters such as pressure drop, the minimum and maximum temperature gradient, Index of uniform temperature (IUT) and etc. In the same working conditions, maximum temperature ratio between parallel and serpentine model is 1.0028 but for index of uniform temperature this study revealed 24% improvement for serpentine cooling flow field than parallel one. The results show that changing the heat transfer rate can be effective on the performance of PEM fuel cell and PEMFC with serpentine cooling flow field compared with parallel one. Serpentine flow field has better cooling performance with regard to effective physical parameters.

Suggested Citation

  • Rahgoshay, S.M. & Ranjbar, A.A. & Ramiar, A. & Alizadeh, E., 2017. "Thermal investigation of a PEM fuel cell with cooling flow field," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 61-73.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:134:y:2017:i:c:p:61-73
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.05.151
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217309350
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2017.05.151?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yu, Sangseok & Jung, Dohoy, 2008. "Thermal management strategy for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system with a large active cell area," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2540-2548.
    2. Carton, J.G. & Olabi, A.G., 2010. "Design of experiment study of the parameters that affect performance of three flow plate configurations of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 2796-2806.
    3. Siegel, C., 2008. "Review of computational heat and mass transfer modeling in polymer-electrolyte-membrane (PEM) fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1331-1352.
    4. Cano-Andrade, S. & Hernandez-Guerrero, A. & von Spakovsky, M.R. & Damian-Ascencio, C.E. & Rubio-Arana, J.C., 2010. "Current density and polarization curves for radial flow field patterns applied to PEMFCs (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 920-927.
    5. Sasmito, Agus P. & Kurnia, Jundika C. & Mujumdar, Arun S., 2012. "Numerical evaluation of various gas and coolant channel designs for high performance liquid-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cell stacks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 278-291.
    6. Rangel-Hernandez, V.H. & Damian-Ascencio, C. & Juarez-Robles, D. & Gallegos-Muñoz, A. & Zaleta-Aguilar, A. & Plascencia-Mora, H., 2011. "Entropy generation analysis of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with a fermat spiral as a flow distributor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 4864-4870.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohammadi-Ahmar, Akbar & Solati, Ali & Osanloo, Behzad & Hatami, Mohammad, 2017. "Effect of number and arrangement of separator electrode assembly (SEA) on the performance of square tubular PEM fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 302-313.
    2. Kim, Ah-Reum & Jung, Hye-Mi & Um, Sukkee, 2014. "An engineering approach to optimal metallic bipolar plate designs reflecting gas diffusion layer compression effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 50-55.
    3. Yin, Cong & Gao, Jianlong & Wen, Xuhui & Xie, Guangyou & Yang, Chunhua & Fang, Honglin & Tang, Hao, 2016. "In situ investigation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance with novel segmented cell design and a two-phase flow model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1071-1089.
    4. Abdollahzadeh, M. & Ribeirinha, P. & Boaventura, M. & Mendes, A., 2018. "Three-dimensional modeling of PEMFC with contaminated anode fuel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 939-959.
    5. Fofana, Daouda & Natarajan, Sadesh Kumar & Hamelin, Jean & Benard, Pierre, 2014. "Low platinum, high limiting current density of the PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell) based on multilayer cathode catalyst approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 398-403.
    6. Xu, Liangfei & Fang, Chuan & Hu, Junming & Cheng, Siliang & Li, Jianqiu & Ouyang, Minggao & Lehnert, Werner, 2017. "Parameter extraction of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell based on quasi-dynamic model and periphery signals," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-690.
    7. Ren, Zhijun & Zhang, Dongming & Wang, Zaiyi, 2012. "Stacks with TiN/titanium as the bipolar plate for PEMFCs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 577-581.
    8. Carton, J.G. & Lawlor, V. & Olabi, A.G. & Hochenauer, C. & Zauner, G., 2012. "Water droplet accumulation and motion in PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell mini-channels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 63-73.
    9. Boyaci San, Fatma Gül & Isik-Gulsac, Isil & Okur, Osman, 2013. "Analysis of the polymer composite bipolar plate properties on the performance of PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells) by RSM (response surface methodology)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1067-1075.
    10. Ramiar, A. & Mahmoudi, A.H. & Esmaili, Q. & Abdollahzadeh, M., 2016. "Influence of cathode flow pulsation on performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with interdigitated gas distributors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 206-217.
    11. Sasmito, Agus P. & Kurnia, Jundika C. & Mujumdar, Arun S., 2012. "Numerical evaluation of various gas and coolant channel designs for high performance liquid-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cell stacks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 278-291.
    12. Ashrafi, Moosa & Kanani, Homayoon & Shams, Mehrzad, 2018. "Numerical and experimental study of two-phase flow uniformity in channels of parallel PEM fuel cells with modified Z-type flow-fields," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 317-328.
    13. Iranzo, Alfredo & Boillat, Pierre & Biesdorf, Johannes & Salva, Antonio, 2015. "Investigation of the liquid water distributions in a 50 cm2 PEM fuel cell: Effects of reactants relative humidity, current density, and cathode stoichiometry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 914-921.
    14. Sayadi, Parvin & Rowshanzamir, Soosan & Parnian, Mohammad Javad, 2016. "Study of hydrogen crossover and proton conductivity of self-humidifying nanocomposite proton exchange membrane based on sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 292-303.
    15. Zhu, Kai-Qi & Ding, Quan & Zhang, Ben-Xi & Xu, Jiang-Hai & Li, Dan-Dan & Yang, Yan-Ru & Lee, Duu-Jong & Wan, Zhong-Min & Wang, Xiao-Dong, 2024. "Performance enhancement of air-cooled PEMFC stack by employing tapered oblique fin channels: Experimental study of a full stack and numerical analysis of a typical single cell," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    16. Rostami, Leila & Mohamad Gholy Nejad, Puriya & Vatani, Ali, 2016. "A numerical investigation of serpentine flow channel with different bend sizes in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 400-410.
    17. Afshari, E. & Mosharaf-Dehkordi, M. & Rajabian, H., 2017. "An investigation of the PEM fuel cells performance with partially restricted cathode flow channels and metal foam as a flow distributor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 705-715.
    18. Gong, Wenyin & Cai, Zhihua, 2013. "Accelerating parameter identification of proton exchange membrane fuel cell model with ranking-based differential evolution," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 356-364.
    19. Asensio, F.J. & San Martín, J.I. & Zamora, I. & Saldaña, G. & Oñederra, O., 2019. "Analysis of electrochemical and thermal models and modeling techniques for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Yang, Luo & Nik-Ghazali, Nik-Nazri & Ali, Mohammed A.H. & Chong, Wen Tong & Yang, Zhenzhong & Liu, Haichao, 2023. "A review on thermal management in proton exchange membrane fuel cells: Temperature distribution and control," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:134:y:2017:i:c:p:61-73. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.