Modeling of flow field in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Suvi Karvonen (Corresponding Author), Tero Hottinen, Jaakko Saarinen, Olli Himanen

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    34 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Isothermal two- and three-dimensional polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell cathode flow field models were implemented to study the behavior of reactant and reaction product gas flow in a parallel channel flow field. The focus was on the flow distribution across the channels and the total pressure drop across the flow field. The effect of the density and viscosity variation in the gas resulting from the composition change due to cell reactions was studied and the models were solved with governing equations based on three different approximations. The focus was on showing how a uniform flow profile can be achieved by improving an existing channel design. The modeling results were verified experimentally. A close to uniform flow distribution was achieved in a parallel channel system.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)876-884
    Number of pages9
    JournalJournal of Power Sources
    Volume161
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2006
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • PEM fuel cell
    • PEMFC
    • Modeling
    • flow field plate
    • parallel channel
    • flow visualization

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