INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF A DIFFERENT TRAPEZOIDAL INCLINATION ANGLE IN A REVERSE TRAPEZOIDAL CROSS-SECTION FLOW CHANNEL ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE PEM FUEL CELL WITH THE COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC (CFD) METHOD

Abstract

In this work, a reverse trapezoidal cross-section channel shape for a single flow channel PEM fuel cell was examined with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method. ANSYS Fluent was applied to solve electrochemical reactions, potential fields, mass, species, and energy transport equations. Species mass ratio, temperature distribution and relative humidity were obtained for the cell as well as the i-V and power density plots. The results were compared to two reference geometries with the commonly used square section shape for the channel. One reference geometry has the same channel width and height with the reverse trapezoidal cross-section channel while the other has the same cross-section area. The results indicate that the cell with reverse trapezoidal cross sectional flow channel shape has more than 32% higher power density than the cell with square cross-sectional flow channel shapes, but poor water management.