Effect of flow pulsation on mass transport in a cathode channel of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Abstract

An experimental and theoretical study on the cathode flow pulsation in a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell is performed. A 10-cell PEM fuel cell stack with open-air cathode channels is employed to investigate the effects of the cathode flow pulsation on the overall performance. The polarization and corresponding power curves obtained show that both the limiting current density and the maximum power density are substantially enhanced when the pulsating component is added to the cathode mainstream flow. The flow pulsation at Re=77 provides the maximum increment of 40% and 35.5% in the limiting current density and in the maximum power density, respectively. The enhancement of the overall performance is more pronounced at low Reynolds numbers. Also, the theoretical mass transport analysis in the pulsating cathode flow channel is carried out to verify the present experimental results. The momentum and species conservation equations are analytically solved, and the effective time-averaged dispersion coefficient is defined to account for the enhanced mass transport by the flow pulsation. Comprehensive analytical solutions show that the effect of the relevant parameters is in well accordance with the experimental results.