Abstract In order to optimize the geometry of the M−like flow field, numerical simulations were performed by virtue of the fuel cell module in ANSYS® FLUENT® software package. Two geometrical parameters of the M−like channel, namely height and width of elliptic obstacle, were considered. Based on the exhausted numerical results in the study, it has been found that the M−like channel exhibits more uniform and large molar concentration distribution of oxygen at the interface between catalyst layer and gas diffusion layer in the cathode side than the conventional parallel channel. Therefore, more reactants can participate in the electrochemical reaction in the catalyst layer, which improves the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Furthermore, effective evaluation criterion (EEC) was utilized to evaluate the comprehensive performance of PEMFC with the M−like channel. Comparing with the parallel channel, the M−like channel has better mass transfer performance without the penalty of high pressure drop, indicating better comprehensive performance. For the practical applications, optimum height and width of obstacle were obtained, the performance of which is 16% higher than the parallel channel.

中文翻译：

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质子交换膜燃料电池中新型 M 型流场的几何优化

摘要 为了优化类 M 流场的几何形状，借助 ANSYS® FLUENT® 软件包中的燃料电池模块进行了数值模拟。考虑了 M 形通道的两个几何参数，即椭圆形障碍物的高度和宽度。根据研究中详尽的数值结果发现，与传统的平行通道相比，M-like通道在阴极侧的催化剂层和气体扩散层之间的界面处表现出更均匀和更大的氧摩尔浓度分布。因此，更多的反应物可以在催化剂层参与电化学反应，从而提高质子交换膜燃料电池（PEMFC）的性能。此外，利用有效评估标准（EEC）来评估具有 M 类通道的 PEMFC 的综合性能。与平行通道相比，M-like 通道具有更好的传质性能，没有高压降的损失，表明综合性能更好。在实际应用中，获得了最佳的障碍物高度和宽度，其性能比并行通道高16%。