Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the impact of three different flow channel cross sections on the performance of the fuel cell.

Design/methodology/approach

A comprehensive three-dimensional polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell model has been developed, and a set of conservation equations has been solved. The flow is assumed to be steady, fully developed, laminar and isothermal. The investigated cross sections are the commonly used square cross section, the increasingly used trapezoidal cross section and a novel hybrid configuration where the cross section is square at the inlet and trapezoidal at the outlet.

Findings

The results show that a slight gain is obtained when using the hybrid configuration and this is because of increased velocity, which improves the supply of the reactant gases to the catalyst layers (CLs) and removes heat and excess water more effectively compared to other configurations. Further, the reduction of the outlet height of the hybrid configuration leads to even better fuel cell performance and this is again because of increased velocity in the flow channel.

Research limitations/implications

The data generated in this study will be highly valuable to engineers interested in studying the effect of fluid cross -sectional shape on fuel cell performance.

Originality/value

This study proposes a novel flow field with a variable cross section. This design can supply a higher amount of reactant gases to the CLs, dissipates heat and remove excess water more effectively.

中文翻译：

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具有可变截面积流道的多相、三维质子交换膜燃料电池数值模型

目的

本文旨在研究三种不同流道横截面对燃料电池性能的影响。

设计/方法论/途径

开发了一个全面的三维聚合物电解质膜燃料电池模型，并求解了一组守恒方程。假定流动是稳定的、充分发展的、层流的和等温的。研究的横截面是常用的方形横截面、越来越多地使用的梯形横截面和一种新颖的混合配置，其中横截面在入口处为方形，在出口处为梯形。

发现

结果表明，使用混合配置时获得了轻微的增益，这是因为速度增加，与其他配置相比，这改善了反应气体向催化剂层 (CL) 的供应，并更有效地去除热量和多余的水。此外，混合配置的出口高度的降低导致甚至更好的燃料电池性能，这又是因为流动通道中的速度增加。

研究局限性/影响

这项研究中生成的数据对于有兴趣研究流体横截面形状对燃料电池性能影响的工程师来说非常有价值。

原创性/价值

这项研究提出了一种具有可变横截面的新型流场。这种设计可以向 CL 提供更多的反应气体，更有效地散热并去除多余的水。