Abstract
There have been extensive efforts devoted to proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell modeling and simulations to study fuel cell performance. Although fuel cells have been successfully demonstrated in both automotive and stationary power applications, there are numerous technical and logistic issues that still have to be solved, such as performance, cost, and system issues. A model based on steady, isothermal, electrochemical, three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics using the FLUENT CFD software package has been developed to predict the fluid flow pattern within a PEMFC. Three types of flow field are investigated with serpentine, parallel or spiral channels in order to determine the best configuration for the fuel cell performance. In this context, the paper presents the results that we have obtained and, as a conclusion of the simulations, we have achieved the best configuration regarding the performance for the fuel cell with serpentine channels. We consider the mathematical and computational modeling as an important alternative for fuel cell optimization and for the exploitation/experimentation in cost reduction.
Highlights
One of the newly emerging technologies in which we are investing considerable human and financial resources is in fuel cell technology
In this paper we extend our previous work [5] with particular focus on finding an optimum geometry of the flow field in order to optimize the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell operation based on the geometries that we developed
In general it is appreciated that the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling of a fuel cell is still facing significant challenges due to the limited understanding of the complex physical and chemical processes that occur within the fuel cell
Summary
One of the newly emerging technologies in which we are investing considerable human and financial resources is in fuel cell technology. It offers great advantages over the conventional power generation technology in terms of both energy efficiency and reduction in pollutant emissions. A success in commercialization of PEM fuel cell technologies will depend on performance, design and manufacture optimizations. A large amount of work has been published regarding the modeling of the PEMFC. The earliest models were one-dimensional and only account for diffusive mass transport and electrochemical kinetics, such as those published in the early 1990s by Springer [1] and + e− e− e− e− e− O2.
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