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A numerical investigation of the performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell with the converging-diverging flow field using two-phase flow modeling

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  • Havaej, P.

Abstract

In this study, two-phase flow in a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell with the converging-diverging flow field was investigated using numerical simulation. A transient, three-dimensional, two-phase flow, and multi-component model, as well as an agglomerate model for oxygen reduction in the cathode catalyst layer, was employed to simulate the performance of the cathode half-cell. The numerical implementation was conducted by developing a new solver in OpenFOAM by the author. An augmentation about 28.2% was observed in the oxygen mass fraction at GDL/Channel interface for a PEM fuel cell with a converging-diverging angle of 0.3° in comparison with the reference cell (straight channels). Moreover, the average of liquid water saturation was decreased by 3.61% in the middle cross-section of gas channels and 9.4% near to the outlet region for reviewed converging-diverging cases. Finally, to investigate the improvement of the cell performance, polarization curve and net output power were presented. It was found that the using converging-diverging flow field was more effective at high current densities, while it had a minor effect at low current densities. The net output power of the PEM fuel cell with converging-diverging channels was enhanced by more than 10% compared with the base cell.

Suggested Citation

  • Havaej, P., 2019. "A numerical investigation of the performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell with the converging-diverging flow field using two-phase flow modeling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 656-672.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:182:y:2019:i:c:p:656-672
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.06.089
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    Cited by:

    1. Rostami, Leila & Haghshenasfard, Masoud & Sadeghi, Morteza & Zhiani, Mohammad, 2022. "A 3D CFD model of novel flow channel designs based on the serpentine and the parallel design for performance enhancement of PEMFC," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    2. Dong, Pengcheng & Xie, Gongnan & Ni, Meng, 2020. "The mass transfer characteristics and energy improvement with various partially blocked flow channels in a PEM fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    3. Zheng, Guoxu & Wang, Dongxing & Tian, Shiyi & Ren, Mingyuan & Song, Mingxin, 2021. "Effect of microstructure and contact interfaces of cobalt MOFs-derived carbon matrix composite electrode materials on lithium storage performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    4. Pan, Mingzhang & Li, Chao & Liao, Jinyang & Lei, Han & Pan, Chengjie & Meng, Xianpan & Huang, Haozhong, 2020. "Design and modeling of PEM fuel cell based on different flow fields," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    5. Xiong, Kangning & Wu, Wei & Wang, Shuangfeng & Zhang, Lin, 2021. "Modeling, design, materials and fabrication of bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cell: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).

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