Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) generates a lot of heat during power generation. It is necessary to control PEMFC to operate at proper temperature through effective thermal management. CFD model of flow field plates with different structures is established; the heat transfer performance of different flow fields was analyzed by numerical simulation. The index of uniformity temperature (IUT) was introduced to further evaluate the heat transfer effect. The results showed that the parallel flow field was not suitable for cooling due to its poor performance at high coolant flow rate. The pressure difference of serpentine flow field was more than 10 times that of other flow fields, which lead to the highest cost in practical cooling application. The wave flow field with the best comprehensive cooling effect at high flow velocity, and the average temperature and IUT were 2.22% and 37.97% lower than the parallel flow field, respectively. The cooling effect of point flow field followed the second, and its average temperature and IUT were 1.65% and 29.71% lower than those of parallel flow field, respectively. In practice application, the wavy flow field showed better heat transfer performance within the required coolant flow range.
A three-dimensional, two-phase, non-isothermal proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzer model was developed, aiming to reveal water and heat distribution characteristics and to explore the effects of various parameters on heat and mass transfer and performance of the electrolyzer. The results show that the electrolyzer performance depends on the combined effect of heat and mass, especially at high voltages. Although increasing the inlet velocity can accelerate the discharge of bubbles, it causes a larger temperature drop which degrades the performance. Increasing the inlet temperature can effectively improve the kinetic reaction rate of the catalyst layer and reduce the ohmic resistance of the membrane, which promotes the performance improvement. Decreasing the contact angle of anode gas diffusion layer (A-GDL) and increasing its porosity is beneficial to the transport of liquid water and improves the performance, but excessive porosity leads to a rapid increase in the ohmic resistance of A-GDL, and the optimal porosity range is 0.5 to 0.6. In addition, changes in A-GDL porosity and contact angle have little effect on temperature. Decreasing the thickness of the membrane can significantly improve the performance, but accelerate the increase of the membrane temperature at high voltage.
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