Performance Investigation of PEM Fuel Cell with Three-Pass Serpentine Flow Fields under Varying Operating Voltages

Abstract

The fuel cells performance is significantly impacted by both design and operational factors. The effective distribution of reactants within the flow fields is facilitated by the design of the flow channels. Therefore, the geometry of the flow channels and the overall design of the flow field play a crucial role in determining the fuel cells performance. Among various flow field designs, the serpentine flow field demonstrates superior performance compared to others. In this research, a three-dimensional proton exchange membrane fuel cell model was developed and used to study the influence of three-pass serpentine flow field on cell performance across varying operating voltages (0.9 V, 0.7 V and 0.5 V). The purpose of this research is to simulate and evaluate the comportment of the three-pass serpentine flow channels configuration by analyzing several parameters such as channels velocity distribution, oxygen mole fraction, pressure distribution and electrolyte current density along the z-axis at the cathode under different operating voltages. Numerical simulations were conducted using the COMSOL Multiphysics software. Therefore, this software is used to solve numerically the complete three-dimensional model with the governing equations of charge conservation, species transport, momentum, and continuity. The obtained results indicate that among different operating voltages, the cell voltage of 0.5 V demonstrated the highest channels velocity distribution, pressure distribution, and electrolyte current density. Moreover, it is found that at an operating voltage of 0.5 V, there is an important decrease in oxygen concentrations indicating a significant oxygen consumption in the fuel cell which improves the overall efficiency. This work contributes valuable insights to the optimization of fuel cell performance, specifically highlighting the favorable outcomes associated with the three-pass serpentine flow field design at lower operating voltages

Key findings

• ▸The three-pass serpentine flow field demonstrates superior performance compared to other flow field designs.
• ▸The geometry of the flow channels and overall design of the flow field significantly impact fuel cell performance.
• ▸Numerical simulations using COMSOL Multiphysics software showed that the three-pass serpentine flow field improves channel velocity distribution, oxygen mole fraction, and electrolyte current density under different operating voltages.

Keywords

Identifiers

DOI

10.37934/cfdl.16.10.5463

Journal

CFD Letters

Year

2024