Thermal enhancement of PEM fuel cell cooling with novel configurations of Tesla valve and hybrid nanofluids: A numerical study

Abstract

The operating temperature and thermal distribution play a significant role in the appropriate performance of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). A suitable cell cooling method can guarantee uniform temperature distribution and preservation of membrane water content under harsh conditions in a PEMFC. The compact structure of PEM fuel cells and the size of the cooling system impose a great challenge to achieve a proper design of cooling plate. In this numerical study, four designs of the multi-stage Tesla valve with straight and reverse configuration are proposed to be employed as a cooling channel in which three different hybrid nanofluids such as TiO2–Cu, Al2O3–CuO, and Ag–MgO dispersed in water and Ethylene glycol flow inside the channels. A validated numerical model is developed using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to investigate the effect of inlet temperatures and mass flow rates of cooling fluid and volume fraction of nanoparticles on heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop, index of uniform temperature (IUT), and performance evaluation criteria (PEC). The results demonstrated that the reverse configuration of the Tesla valve (CASE E) experienced outstanding uniform thermal distribution while the heat transfer coefficient increased by 15% in this case compared to the straight-line cooling channel. The Ag–MgO hybrid nanoparticles showed better thermal performance than the two other nanoparticles with a 4% reduction in temperature difference in the cooling plate.