Study on the surface structure effect of anode flow channel in proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Abstract

The paper mainly discusses the transport behavior of hydrogen gas in the anode flow channel of the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell. The flow pattern of hydrogen gas at the anode is affected by the surface structure of flow channel. In order to accurately simulate the transport characteristics of the hydrogen gas in the anode flow channel, a structured 3-D multi-block, staggered grid system is used for spatial discretization in numerical methods, and the finite volume method is used to sequentially iteratively solve the continuous and momentum conservation equations. The coupling between velocity and pressure in the flow field is calculated by the PISO algorithm. Two shapes design of three-dimensional smooth straight flow channel and three-dimensional bump straight flow channel are adopted in this paper. The hydrogen gas with Reynolds number 200 enters the smooth straight flow channel. The flow field inside the flow channel has been developed about 0.3 ms. At the same inlet Reynolds number and straight flow channels of three kind of bump height ratio (h/H=0.25, h/H=0.5, h/H=0.75), these calculation results are discovered that the height ratio of the bump increases and the backflow effect becomes more obvious. The current density of the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell is further analyzed by the flow field variation in the bump flow channel.