Abstract
According to earlier studies, the porous flow fields of Polymer Electrode Fuel Cell (PEFC) are more tolerant against flooding phenomenon in comparison with conventional flow channels such as straight and serpentine type channels. However, the relationship between the porous structure and water management ability of porous media has not been clarified. This study investigated the influence of porosity and pore diameter of metal foam flow fields on the cell performance and water transport. Celmets, which are the porous media with foam structure and high porosity in comparison with sintered metal, is used as the porous flow fields. The results show that the influence of pore diameter on cell performance and water drainage is small under the condition of this study. And the usage of celmets with higher porosity, 96.8%, causes a decrease in cell performance. Such a performance decrease appears to be caused by the lower contact pressure and inferior gas diffusion.
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