A CFD Investigation of Effects of Flow-Field Geometry on Transient Performance of an Automotive Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell

Abstract

A three-dimensional, multi-species, multi-phase PEM fuel cell model was developed in order to investigate the effect of the flow-field geometry on the steady-state and transient performances of the cell under an automotive operation. The two most commonly used designs, parallel and single-serpentine flow-fields, were selected as they offer distinctive species transport modes of diffusion-dominant and convection-dominant flows in the porous layers, respectively. It was found that this difference in flow mode significantly effects membrane hydration, the key parameter in determining a successful operation. In a steady run, a serpentine flow-field increased the averaged current density under the wet condition due to superior water removal but this had a negative effect on the cell in the way that it caused membrane dry-out if dry reactant gases were used. The transient operation, on the other hand, seemed to favour the combination of a serpentine flow-field and dry reactant gases as it helped in the removal of product water and speeded up the transport of reacting species to the reactive site to find equilibrium at the new state with minimum time delay and current overshoot or undershoot which is the most important aspect of a dynamic system.

Meshing Strategy for PEM Fuel Cells CFD Modelling– A Systematic Approach

“…-Low-to-zero cell skewness and close-to-unity cell orthogonality for good convergence rate. The governing equations and operating conditions are the same as used in the authors' previous publications [3,4] and Fluent Fuel Cells module manual [5]which not be repeated here. The problem is solved in a commercial CFD code, ANSYS Fluent with a PEM fuel cells add-on package.…”

An effective mesh strategy for CFD modelling of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

“…The anode and cathode streams are humidified hydrogen and air, respectively. The governing equations used in this study are the ones used and explained in the authors' previous publications [19]- [21] and Fluent Fuel Cells module manual [22] hence not repeated here. The operating conditions are given in Table 2 while properties of all meshes are summarised in Table 3.…”

Three-dimensional multiphase flow computational fluid dynamics models for proton exchange membrane fuel cell: A theoretical development

“…System boundary Computational domain CFD software Shimpalee and Dutta 10 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Fluent Berning and Djilali 11 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Multi-domain CFX Mazumder and Cole 12 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain CFD-ACEþ Coppo et al 13 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain CFDesign Matamoros and Bruggemann 14 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Own written codes Al-Baghdadi and Al-Janabi 15 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Multi-domain Unspecified Schwarz and Djilali 16 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Fluent Shimpalee et al 17 Complete cell Single domain STAR-CD Jang et al 18 Complete cell Single domain Unspecified Ren et al 19 Double flow channels with GDL and MEA Single domain Unspecified Wang 20 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Own written codes Wang et al 21 Single flow channel Single domain Fluent Berning et al 22 Single flow channel with GDL and CL Multi-domain unspecified Schwarz and Beale 23 Complete cell Single domain Fluent Schwarz and Djilali 24 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Fluent Berning et al 25 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Multi-domain CFX Yuan et al 26 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Fluent Wu et al 27 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Fluent Cordiner et al 28 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Multi-domain Fluent Fink and Fouquet 29 Complete cell Multi-domain AVL FIRE Kang et al 30 Complete cell Single domain Fluent Chiu et al 31 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain CFD-ACEþ Sun et al 32 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Multi-domain Own written codes Cao et al 33 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Own written codes Hossain et al 34 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Fluent Jiang and Wang 35 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Fluent Mancusi et al 36 Single flow channel with GDL and MEA Single domain Fluent Choopanya and Yang 37 Complete cell Singl...…”

“…Choopanya and Yang 37 developed a multiphase model to investigate the effect of the parallel and the serpentine flow-field geometries on the cell performance under both steady-state and transient operations. It was found that in the steady-state run, the average current density increases with the use of a serpentine flow field due to superior water removal ability.…”