Numerical thermal analysis of nanofluid flow through the cooling channels of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell filled with metal foam

Abstract

Improvement in the cooling system performance by making the temperature distribution uniform is an essential part in design of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. In this paper, we proposed to use water-CuO nanofluid as the coolant fluid and to fill the flow field in the cooling plates of the fuel cell stack by metal foam. We numerically investigated the effect of using nanofluid at different porosities, pore sizes, and thicknesses of metal foam, on the thermal performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. The accuracy of present computations is increased by applying a three-dimensional modeling based on finite-volume method, a variable thermal heat flux as the thermal boundary condition, and a two-phase approach to obtain the distribution of nanoparticles volume fraction. The obtained results indicated that at low Reynolds numbers, the role of nanoparticles in improvement of temperature uniformity is more dominant. Moreover, metal foam can reduce the maximum temperature for about 16.5 K and make the temperature distribution uniform in the cooling channel, whereas increase in the pressure drop is not considerable. K E Y W O R D Scooling system, metal foam, nanofluid, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell, pore size, porosity

Exergetic performance assessment of magnesium oxide–water nanofluid in corrugated minichannel heat sinks: An experimental study

“…The average Nu decreased slightly with rise in heating power. The possible reason behind this deterioration of Nu may be attributed to the instability of suspended nanoparticles at higher heating powers 6,24,36 . The CMHS 3 obtained maximum enhancements of 28.75%, 28.3%, and 27.15% in the average Nu for 0.01 vol.% concentration of MgO–water nanofluid as compared to water for heating powers of 25, 35, and 45 W, respectively.…”

“…Hamilton and Crosser model 56 is used to find the thermal conductivity of nanofluid and given by Equation (6).…”

“…In recent years, thermophysical properties of coolant are improved by the addition of nanosized particles, and this new coolant is known as nanofluid. The nanofluids found to have applications in heat transfer devices, 3,4 energy devices, 5,6 and solar energy systems. [7][8][9] As the present study deals with minichannel heat sinks, the literature on minichannel heat sinks utilizing nanofluids is reviewed herein.…”

Thermal characteristics of an air‐cooled open‐cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack via numerical investigation

“…18 Passive cooling refers to the use of conduction to dissipate heat; this is achieved using heat spreaders or heat pipes. 19,20 Between those two configurations, the passive cooling approach is simpler, leading to a lower system cost, lower and easier maintenance and it can be applied also to lightweight applications, such as the utilisation of PEMFCs in UAVs. 21 Thus, the selection of the type of the cooling system depends mainly on the power grade of the PEMFC.…”

“…On the other hand, if the PEMFC system is based on natural convection of air with the external surface area of the stack, then the cooling is considered as passive 18 . Passive cooling refers to the use of conduction to dissipate heat; this is achieved using heat spreaders or heat pipes 19,20 . Between those two configurations, the passive cooling approach is simpler, leading to a lower system cost, lower and easier maintenance and it can be applied also to lightweight applications, such as the utilisation of PEMFCs in UAVs 21 .…”