Investigation of liquid water behaviors inside a PEMFC cathode with a leaf-like biomimetic flow field design based on Murray’s Law

Abstract

ABSTRACT Water management is the key to further improvement in the performance and durability of proton electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The flow field inside the bipolar plates has a major role in managing the flooding process. Biomimetic flow field designs have been capturing the attention of researchers for their promising characteristics including uniform flow distribution and low pressure drop. Therefore, this study investigates liquid water behaviors inside a leaf-like biomimetic flow field design based on Murray’s Law using at the cathode of a PEMFC. The investigation is conducted using a computational simulation method utilizing the commercial software Ansys Fluent, in which the volume of fluid method is implemented for the three-dimensional, two-phase, unsteady flow simulation with the application of a dynamic contact angle model. The results are the general water transport process, the velocity, and pressure distribution inside the leaf-like biomimetic flow field design based on Murray’s Law.