3D CFD modeling of a PEM fuel cell stack

Macedo-Valencia, J.; Sierra, J.M.; Figueroa-Ramírez, Sandra J.; Díaz, Sergio; Meza, M.

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.10.065

Cited by 84 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…From Figure , it is observed that the reactant concentration decreases towards the outlet confirming proper utilization of hydrogen as also shown by Sierra et al As seen from Figure E, the hydrogen concentration distribution of straight zigzag flow field has the highest gradient which clearly indicates that the hydrogen has been gradually consumed from inlet to outlet which is more expected for better performance of the PEM‐FC. Moreover, the lowest hydrogen concentration in observed in the corners as depicted in Figure E, which specifies the 100% consumption of hydrogen at the corners.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

“…As stated earlier, the maximum power output of a PEM-FC is around 50% mainly due to the heat losses comprising electrochemical losses, water condensation to liquid, and ineffective flow channel distributions. 4 Despite having a high power and energy density, the conventional fuel cells have a small active area which results in a very low power output of 3.5 to 8 W.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of flow fields and humidification of reactant and oxidant on the performance of scaled‐up PEM‐FC using CFD code

Selvaraj

Rajagopal

2019

Int J Energy Res

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Summary The present study focuses on three‐dimensional two‐phase CFD investigation on scaled‐up proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM‐FC) for an active area of 100 cm2 with different designs of serpentine and parallel flow configuration. The humidification of hydrogen and oxygen is varied from 10% to 100% to study the PEM‐FC performance. The numerical results of polarization curves predicted in this study have been numerically validated with that of the literature for both parallel and counter serpentine flow channels with active area of 24.8‐cm2 PEM‐FC. Further upon validation, the numerical study is extended for scaled‐up PEM‐FC with active area of 100 cm2 with different flow path designs to study its performance characteristics namely polarization curves, species concentration distribution, water content in the membrane electrolyte, and proton conductivity to evaluate the fuel cell performance. The three‐dimensional CAD models are created in SOLIDWORKS 10.0 and are discretised hexahedrally using finite volume method. The various governing equations namely conservation of mass, momentum, energy, species concentration, and electrochemical equations are solved numerically with the necessary boundary conditions using the CFD code. The novel design of straight zigzag flow path shows the better performance output over the other designs investigated which is having a higher power density of 0.3711 W/cm2 for 100% relative humidity of reactant and oxidant.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of flow fields and humidification of reactant and oxidant on the performance of scaled‐up PEM‐FC using CFD code

Selvaraj

Rajagopal

2019

Int J Energy Res

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“…Further, larger air flow rate led to drop of cell voltage, which made the produced heat larger as a consequence. 19 And there would be more liquid water accumulating at the bottom part of PEMFC due to gravity and gas flow, which can block the hydrogen diffusion and weaken the reactivity. Figure 6 demonstrates the TUI of the cell units and stack in steady state.…”

Section: Temperature Uniformity At Steady Statementioning

confidence: 99%

“…But the performance in stack level was not included. Macedo-Valencia et al 19 presented a single-phase 3D model to simulate the behaviours of an open-cathode stack with five PEMFCs. It can be known from the results that the temperature in air channel downstream was higher than that in the upstream, which was contrary to the trend along the hydrogen flow direction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell and stack‐level study of steady‐state and transient behaviour of temperature uniformity of open‐cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cells

et al. 2019

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Summary The steady‐state temperature uniformity and thermal transients of open‐cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) at cell and stack level are researched experimentally in this study. The local temperatures are obtained by 30 thermocouples contacting the surfaces of cathode gas diffusion layers (GDL). The s temperature homogeneity under different load currents and air flow rates are investigated. The results reveal that the fluctuation of temperature distribution under different currents is small under the lowest air flow rate set in the experiments. Comparatively, the temperature is less uniform when the load current is higher under other air flow rates. The evaluation indicator, temperature uniformity index (TUI), varies nearly linearly with the current. And the maximum variation is 55.6% to 59.0%. This distinct behaviour is probably related to the existence of liquid water and its nonuniform distribution which can enlarge the temperature difference at high current. With respect to thermal transients, there is rapid deterioration in temperature uniformity when the load current is stepped up. It may arise from the uneven liquid water distribution which can lead to different temperature variation rates. Further, the research gives direction for optimization of cooling strategy and thermal management of open‐cathode PEMFC stack in application.

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“…Even if the results are qualitatively validated, some inaccuracies can be observed during transient, they mainly come from the 1D approximation of reactant transport and redox reactions. Indeed, a 3D model is required for better quantitative results [12][13][14].…”

Section: Simulation Of Pemfc Low Voltage Operationmentioning

confidence: 99%

PEM single fuel cell as a dedicated power source for high-inductive superconducting coils

Linares

Raël

Berger

et al. 2018

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

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3D CFD modeling of a PEM fuel cell stack

Cited by 84 publications

References 21 publications

Effect of flow fields and humidification of reactant and oxidant on the performance of scaled‐up PEM‐FC using CFD code

Effect of flow fields and humidification of reactant and oxidant on the performance of scaled‐up PEM‐FC using CFD code

Cell and stack‐level study of steady‐state and transient behaviour of temperature uniformity of open‐cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cells

PEM single fuel cell as a dedicated power source for high-inductive superconducting coils

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