Performance investigation of PEMFC with rectangle blockages in Gas Channel based on field synergy principle

Abstract This work, using three-dimension proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) model combined with theoretical analysis, is mainly to improve the performance of PEMFC through optimizations of fuel cell structure, adding rectangle blockages in the gas channel. Performance compari...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shen, Jun, Zeng, Lingping, Liu, Zhichun, Liu, Wei
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/131560
Description
Summary:Abstract This work, using three-dimension proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) model combined with theoretical analysis, is mainly to improve the performance of PEMFC through optimizations of fuel cell structure, adding rectangle blockages in the gas channel. Performance comparison, velocity distribution, interface reactant concentration difference, and pressure drop have been studied in the paper. The result shows that, longitudinal vortices would appear and the performance could be improved with the addition of blockages in the gas channel, especially at high current density with closer arrangement. According to field synergy principle, average mass transfer synergy angle could prove the superiority of optimized structure in the ability of mass transfer. Besides, a novel physical quantity, effective mass transfer coefficient, has been proposed. The effective mass transfer coefficient, is the ability of mass transfer in the direction of electrochemical reaction in PEMFC, which could also give mechanism explanation for the performance improvement.