Performance Studies on PEM Fuel Cell with 2, 3 and 4 Pass Serpentine Flow Field Designs
M. Muthukumar, P. Karthikeyan, V. Lakshminarayanan, A.P. Senthil Kumar +2
AI summary
70% confidenceThe paper numerically investigates the effects of serpentine flow field designs with 2, 3, and 4 passes on PEM fuel cell performance.
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Abstract
The geometrical and flow parameters are governing the performance of the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). The flow channels are used for distributing the reactants uniformly throughout the active area of fuel cell. Among different flow field designs, the serpentine flow field can give better performance to the PEM fuel cell. This paper numerically investigates the effects of the serpentine flow field with different number of passes. The 2 pass, 3 pass and 4 pass serpentine flow field designs of same rib size and channel size were modelled and analyzed using commercially available software package. From the polarization curves and performance curves drawn using the numerical results, the performance of three flow channel designs were compared and the maximum power densities of each design were found
Key findings
- The 4 pass serpentine flow field design showed the highest maximum power density.
- The 2 pass design had the lowest maximum power density among the three designs.
- The 3 pass design showed a moderate performance between the 2 and 4 pass designs.
Keywords
Identifiers
- Journal
- Applied Mechanics and Materials
- Year
- 2014