Performance superiority of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with corrugated gas diffusion layer: A numerical study

Abstract

Oxygen transfer to the reaction zone is known as one of the main performance limiting factors in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs). The present study aims to improve oxygen transfer by converting the flat Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) of an ordinary PEMFC to a corrugated one. The idea of GDL corrugation originates from the fact that it may enhance oxygen transfer by increasing the contact area between gas flow and the GDL surface. The results reveal that the GDL corrugation effectiveness increases with corrugation amplitude, but decreases with corrugation period. It is also observed that although the cell power increases with both operating pressure and the oxygen purity at the cathode channel inlet, the GDL corrugation effectiveness decreases with oxygen purity, and may increase or decrease with operating pressure. For the examined cases, the results show a power increase of up to about 4.08% due to GDL corrugation.