Abstract
This study develops an air breathing pump driven by a piezoelectric actuator for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack. Permanent magnets are combined with a piezoelectric actuator to drive three air breathing pumps using magnetic force. This design enables the pump to provide a sufficient amount of air simultaneously to six cathode flow field plates in a stack of three “bi-cell PZTmag–PEMFCs”. When both the PZTmag and the PDMSmag had a magnet with a 6-mm diameter and 1-mm thickness, a maximum amplitude of 87 μm was generated at 0.03 W of power under operating conditions of 70 Hz and 40 V. In computational fluid dynamics (CFD), when the nozzle and the diffuser of an air breathing pump have an aspect ratio of 13.13, air flow distributes uniformly inside the pump, thus allowing for uniform transmission of oxygen to the membrane electrode assembly. This aspect ratio was applied to the bi-cell PZTmag–PEMFC stack and yielded a maximum net power flux of 0.1925 W·cm−2, 20% higher than that reported in a previous study (Ma, 2013), with 68% and 76% less volume and weight, respectively.
Highlights
A proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is compactly constructed, and has high current flux, a solid as electrolyte, low working temperature, and fast start-up
A flow plate is a vital component of a PEMFC as it supplies fuel and oxidants to reactive sites, removes products, collects the generated current, and provides mechanical support to the fuel cell stack
Ma et al [14,15] developed a cathode channel design that utilized the piezoelectric effect in air breathing PEMFC systems, known as PZT–PEMFC, and used a nozzle and a diffuser to prevent air backflow without valves
Summary
A proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is compactly constructed, and has high current flux, a solid as electrolyte, low working temperature, and fast start-up. Ma et al [14,15] developed a cathode channel design that utilized the piezoelectric effect in air breathing PEMFC systems, known as PZT–PEMFC, and used a nozzle and a diffuser to prevent air backflow without valves They solved water-flooding problems and improved cell performance. Previous studies have shown that the performance of a PEMFC can be improved when an air breathing design with PZT actuators is used, but the designs of the PZT–PEMFC have hitherto only focused on bi-cell units, which means that a single cell within a bi-cell unit has not been optimized This causes problems, such as a low volume of air flow, and a cell with large volume and weight. A method from computational fluid dynamics was used to find the best geometry of the nozzle and the design of the angle of the diffuser with an air pump of limited volume
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