Effect of flow field design on the performance of elevated-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Abstract

In our previous work, operation of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) at 95°C was investigated in detail and it was found that dry operation of PEFC at elevated temperatures makes the parallel flow field design a viable design option for high temperature applications such as for automobiles. In this work, a three-dimensional, non-isothermal PEFC model is used to compare the performance of a 25 cm2 fuel cell with serpentine and parallel flow field design operated at 95°C under various inlet humidity conditions. Numerical results show that the parallel flow field provides better and more uniformly distributed performance over the whole active area which makes the parallel flow field a better design compared to the serpentine flow field for PEFCs operated at elevated temperature and low inlet relative humidity. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.