Open Access

ARTICLE

CFD Analysis of Spiral Flow Fields in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Jian Yao, Fayi Yan^*, Xuejian Pei

College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan, 250101, China

* Corresponding Author: Fayi Yan. Email:

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2023, 19(6), 1425-1445. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2023.025282

Received 03 July 2022; Accepted 11 October 2022; Issue published 30 January 2023

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are largely used in various applications because of their pollution-free products and high energy conversion efficiency. In order to improve the related design, in the present work a new spiral flow field with a bypass is proposed. The reaction gas enters the flow field in the central path and diffuses in two directions through the flow channel and the bypass. The bypasses are arranged incrementally. The number of bypasses and the cross-section size of the bypasses are varied parametrically while a single-cell model of the PEMFC is used. The influence of the concentration of liquid water and oxygen in the cell on the performance of different flow fields is determined by means of Computational fluid dynamics (COMSOL Multiphysics software). Results show that when the bypass number is 48 and its cross-sectional area is 0.5 mm², the cell exhibits the best performances.

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Graphical Abstract

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