CFD Analysis of Pressure Drop Reduction in PEMFC Flow Channels with Distinct Cross-Section Shapes

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have great potential to produce renewable, sustainable and clean energy and reduce air pollutants to mitigate climate change. PEMFCs consist of distinct parts including anode and cathode bipolar plates having flow channels, gas diffusion layers, catalyst layers, and membrane. The flow channel geometry influences the flow and pressure drop characteristics of the channel and cell performance. In this work, a three-dimensional (3D) CFD model is built employing SOLIDWORKS and ANSYS Workbench. The innovative configurations are generated by changing the half of 0.2 x 0.2 mm square channel to 0.3 x 0.1 mm, 0.3 x 0.15 mm, 0.3 x 0.2 mm and 0.3 x 0.25 mm rectangular section at the top. The results showed that increasing rectangular section height significantly reduced pressure drop at the anode and cathode with a slight decrease in the current density at 0.4 and 0.6 V. The new configuration with 0.2 x 0.1 mm half square section at the bottom and 0.3 x 0.25 mm rectangular section at the top decreases the current density, anode and cathode pressure drop of 11%, 69% and 58%, respectively in comparison to 0.2 x 0.2 flow channel at 0.4 V. Taking into account pressure loss along the flow channels, this configuration is a good option to improve the cell performance.