Determination of the optimal active area for proton exchange membrane fuel cells with parallel, interdigitated or serpentine designs

Effects of active area size on steady-state characteristics of a working PEM fuel cell, including local current densities, local oxygen transport rates, and liquid water transport were studied by applying a three-dimensional, two-phase PEM fuel cell model. The PEM fuel cells were with parallel, interdigitated, and serpentine flow channel design. At high operating voltages, the size effects on cell performance are not noticeable owing to the occurrence of oxygen supply limit. The electrochemical reaction rates are high at low operating voltages, producing large quantity of water, whose removal capability is significantly affected by flow channel design. The cells with long parallel flow field experience easy water accumulation, thereby presenting low oxygen transport rate and low current density. The cells with interdigitated and serpentine flow fields generate forced convection stream to improve reactant transport and liquid water removal, thereby leading to enhanced cell performance and different size effect from the parallel flow cells. Increase in active area significantly improves performance for serpentine cells, but only has limited effect on that of interdigitated cells. Size effects of pressure drop over the PEM cells were also discussed.

[1]  Chao-Yang Wang,et al.  Model of Two-Phase Flow and Flooding Dynamics in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells , 2005 .

[2]  Jenn-Jiang Hwang,et al.  A complete two-phase model of a porous cathode of a PEM fuel cell , 2007 .

[3]  Wei-Mon Yan,et al.  Local transport phenomena and cell performance of PEM fuel cells with various serpentine flow field designs , 2008 .

[4]  Anzhong Gu,et al.  Three dimensional, two phase flow mathematical model for PEM fuel cell: Part II. Analysis and discussion of the internal transport mechanisms , 2004 .

[5]  Chao-Yang Wang,et al.  Liquid Water Transport in Gas Diffusion Layer of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells , 2004 .

[6]  T. Nguyen,et al.  Two-phase flow model of the cathode of PEM fuel cells using interdigitated flow fields , 2000 .

[7]  Ay Su,et al.  Numerical prediction of concentration and current distributions in PEMFC , 2005 .

[8]  Anzhong Gu,et al.  Three dimensional, two phase flow mathematical model for PEM fuel cell: Part I. Model development , 2004 .

[9]  T. Springer,et al.  Modeling and Experimental Diagnostics in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells , 1993 .

[10]  Hua Meng,et al.  A two-phase non-isothermal mixed-domain PEM fuel cell model and its application to two-dimensional simulations , 2007 .

[11]  Wei-Mon Yan,et al.  Effects of flow distributor geometry and diffusion layer porosity on reactant gas transport and performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells , 2004 .

[12]  Wei Jiang,et al.  Parameter sensitivity examination and discussion of PEM fuel cell simulation model validation. Part I. Current status of modeling research and model development , 2006 .

[13]  Hua Meng,et al.  A three-dimensional PEM fuel cell model with consistent treatment of water transport in MEA , 2006 .

[14]  H. Meng.  A three-dimensional mixed-domain PEM fuel cell model with fully-coupled transport phenomena , 2007 .

[15]  Chao-Yang Wang,et al.  Ultra large-scale simulation of polymer electrolyte fuel cells , 2006 .

[16]  I-Ming Hsing,et al.  Two-dimensional simulation of water transport in polymer electrolyte fuel cells , 2000 .

[17]  Sirivatch Shimpalee,et al.  The impact of channel path length on PEMFC flow-field design , 2006 .

[18]  T. Nguyen,et al.  Multicomponent transport in porous electrodes of proton exchange membrane fuel cells using the interdigitated gas distributors , 1999 .

[19]  T. Hatanaka,et al.  Measurement of Flooding in Gas Diffusion Layers of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Conventional Flow Field , 2006 .

[20]  Sirivatch Shimpalee,et al.  Predicting water and current distributions in a commercial-size PEMFC , 2004 .

[21]  N. Djilali,et al.  Influence of heat transfer on gas and water transport in fuel cells , 2002 .

[22]  Chaoyang Wang,et al.  Three-dimensional analysis of transport and electrochemical reactions in polymer electrolyte fuel cells , 2004 .

[23]  W. Lehnert,et al.  Development of a stack having an optimized flow field structure with low cross transport effects , 2006 .

[24]  Sandip Mazumder,et al.  Rigorous 3-D mathematical modeling of PEM fuel cells. II. Model predictions with liquid water transport , 2003 .

[25]  Ralph E. White,et al.  A water and heat management model for proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells , 1993 .

[26]  Mark W. Verbrugge,et al.  A Mathematical Model of the Solid‐Polymer‐Electrolyte Fuel Cell , 1992 .

[27]  Frano Barbir,et al.  An Analytical Solution of a Half‐Cell Model for PEM Fuel Cells , 2000 .

[28]  Wei-Mon Yan,et al.  Numerical study of cell performance and local transport phenomena in PEM fuel cells with various flow channel area ratios , 2007 .

[29]  T. Nguyen,et al.  An Along‐the‐Channel Model for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells , 1998 .

[30]  Wei-Mon Yan,et al.  Effects of flow channel geometry on cell performance for PEM fuel cells with parallel and interdigitated flow fields , 2008 .

[31]  Lan Sun,et al.  A numerical study of channel-to-channel flow cross-over through the gas diffusion layer in a PEM-fuel-cell flow system using a serpentine channel with a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape , 2006 .

[32]  Xianguo Li,et al.  Modelling of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with variable degrees of water flooding , 2000 .

[33]  S. Dutta,et al.  Numerical prediction of mass-exchange between cathode and anode channels in a PEM fuel cell , 2001 .

[34]  Chao-Yang Wang,et al.  Fundamental models for fuel cell engineering. , 2004, Chemical reviews.

[35]  Wei-Mon Yan,et al.  EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON OPTIMAL OPERATING CONDITIONS FOR DIFFERENT FLOW FIELD DESIGNS OF PEM FUEL CELLS , 2006 .

[36]  Rong Chen,et al.  Analysis of Mass Transport of Methanol at the Anode of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell , 2006 .

[37]  Hubertus P.L.H. van Bussel,et al.  Dynamic model of solid polymer fuel cell water management , 1998 .

[38]  T. Springer,et al.  Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Model , 1991 .

[39]  Trung Van Nguyen,et al.  A Gas Distributor Design for Proton‐Exchange‐Membrane Fuel Cells , 1996 .

[40]  Jiujun Zhang,et al.  A review of water flooding issues in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell , 2008 .

[41]  Sirivatch Shimpalee,et al.  Numerical studies on rib & channel dimension of flow-field on PEMFC performance , 2007 .

[42]  Chao-Yang Wang,et al.  Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells , 2000 .

[43]  Signe Kjelstrup,et al.  Ion and water transport characteristics of Nafion membranes as electrolytes , 1998 .

[44]  Shanhai Ge,et al.  A mathematical model for PEMFC in different flow modes , 2003 .

[45]  T. Fuller,et al.  Water and Thermal Management in Solid‐Polymer‐Electrolyte Fuel Cells , 1993 .

[46]  Trung Van Nguyen,et al.  A Two-Dimensional Two-Phase Model of a PEM Fuel Cell , 2006 .

[47]  Tianshou Zhao,et al.  A new flow field design for polymer electrolyte-based fuel cells , 2007 .

[48]  T. Fuller,et al.  Influence of rib spacing in proton-exchange membrane electrode assemblies , 1996 .

[49]  Tatsuhiro Okada,et al.  Simulation for water management in membranes for polymer electrolyte fuel cells , 1998 .

[50]  Suresh G. Advani,et al.  On the relative influence of convection in serpentine flow fields of PEM fuel cells , 2006 .

[51]  M. Verbrugge,et al.  Mathematical model of a gas diffusion electrode bonded to a polymer electrolyte , 1991 .

[52]  Wei-Mon Yan,et al.  Novel serpentine-baffle flow field design for proton exchange membrane fuel cells , 2007 .

[53]  Ned Djilali,et al.  A two-dimensional analysis of mass transport in proton exchange membrane fuel cells , 1999 .