Performance investigation on the radial flow channel of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Abstract

The structure of flow channels on the bipolar plates is one of the most critical factors affecting the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC). This paper established a novel radial flow channel of PEMFC with a circular bipolar plate. Based on numerical simulation, the performance of PEMFC with different flow fields was studied and analyzed. The numerical simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental data. The performance of the radial flow channel is compared with that of other four types of typical flow channels under the same parameters. It is found that the novel radial flow channel was obviously superior to the other four types of flow channels in electrochemical performance, oxygen concentration and water content distribution. The results show that the novel radial flow channel is one of the best patterns for even symmetrical flow distribution and is helpful to improve the performance of PEMFC.