Development of Radial Flow Field for Improved Water and Gas Management in PEMFC

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooks R. Friess ◽  
Mina Hoorfar
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Radial Flow ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
Limiting Current ◽  
Flow Channels ◽  
Serpentine Flow Field ◽  
Superior Surface ◽  
Conductive Properties ◽  
Pemfc Cathode

This paper presents an innovative radial flow field design for PEMFC cathode flow plates. This new design, which is in the form of a radial field, replaces the standard rectangular flow channels in exchange for a set of flow control rings. The control rings allow for better flow distribution and use of the active area. The radial flow field was constructed with aluminum and plated with gold for superior surface and conductive properties. These materials were selected based on the results obtained from the performance of the standard flow channels of serpentine and parallel constructed of hydrophilic gold and hydrophobic graphite materials. The innovative radial flow field produces the largest limiting current density compared to other channel designs, even the serpentine flow field. The water removal and mass transport capacity of the radial flow field was proven to be better than parallel and serpentine. This performance increase was achieved while maintaining the pressure drop nearly half of the pressure drop measured in the serpentine flow fields.

scholarly journals Study on architecture design of electroactive sites on Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (V-RFB)

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 02004
Author(s):  
Suhailah Sujali ◽  
Mohd Rusllim Mohamed ◽  
Ahmed Nurye Oumer ◽  
Azizan Ahmad ◽  
Puiki Leung
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
Vanadium Redox Flow Battery ◽  
Redox Flow Battery ◽  
Three Dimensional Model ◽  
Flow Battery ◽  
Circular Cell ◽  
Serpentine Flow Field ◽  
Vanadium Redox

Numerous researches have been conducted to look for better design of cell architecture of redox flow battery. This effort is to improve the performance of the battery with respect to further improves of mass transport and flow distribution of electroactive electrolytes within the cell. This paper evaluates pressure drop and flow distribution of the electroactive electrolyte in three different electrode configurations of vanadium redox flow battery (V-RFB) cell, namely square-, rhombus- and circular-cell designs. The fluid flow of the above-mentioned three electrode design configurations are evaluated under three different cases i.e. no flow (plain) field, parallel flow field and serpentine flow field using numerically designed three-dimensional model in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. The cell exhibits different characteristics under different cases, which the circular cell design shows promising results for test-rig development with low pressure drop and better flow distribution of electroactive electrolytes within the cell. Suggestion for further work is highlighted.

Experimental Investigation of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell Using Different Serpentine Flow Channels

2019 ◽  
Vol 969 ◽  
pp. 461-465
Author(s):  
Matha Prasad Adari ◽  
P. Lavanya ◽  
P. Hara Gopal ◽  
T.Praveen Sagar ◽  
S. Pavani
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Current Density ◽  
Proton Exchange Membrane ◽  
Proton Exchange ◽  
Bipolar Plates ◽  
Flow Channels ◽  
Serpentine Flow Field ◽  
Exchange Membrane ◽  
Effective Distribution

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is an advanced power system for the future that is sustainable, clean and environmental friendly. The flow channels present in bipolar plates of a PEMFC are responsible for the effective distribution of the reactant gases. Uneven distribution of the reactants can cause variations in current density, temperature, and water content over the area of a PEMFC, thus reducing the performance of PEMFC. By using Serpentine flow field channel, the performance is increased. Two types of serpentine flow field channels are implemented such as curved serpentine flow field channel and normal serpentine flow field channels. The result shows that curved serpentine flow field channel gives better current density and power density, thus increasing the performance of PEMFC.

Numerical Simulation Applied to Study the Effects of Fractal Tree-Liked Network Channel Designs on PEMFC Performance

2012 ◽  
Vol 488-489 ◽  
pp. 1219-1223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shan Jen Cheng ◽  
Jr Ming Miao ◽  
Chang Hsien Tai
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Fluid Dynamic ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
Flow Channel ◽  
Proton Exchange ◽  
Channel Network ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis ◽  
Network Channel

The effect of pressure drop and the flow-field of inhomogeneous transport of reactions gas are two important issues for bipolar flow channel design in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). A novel design through the imitation of biological development of the topology distribution of fractal tree-liked network channel is the main topic of this research. The effects of different Reynolds numbers and stoichiometric mass flow rate of reaction gas on the flow field distribution of tree-like channels were investigated by three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic analysis. According to numerical simulations, the fractal tree-liked network channel would have an excellent performance on the uniformity of multi-branching flow distribution and lower pressure drop along channels. The new type of fractal tree-liked bionic flow channel network design will be applied to assist in the experimental reference for improving the performance of fuel cell stack system in PEMFC for future.

Simulate Design of Direct Air Cooling Exhausted Duct System for 1000MW Super-Critical Thermal Power Unit

2014 ◽  
Vol 535 ◽  
pp. 180-184
Author(s):  
Chun Qing Wang ◽  
Cai Xia Bian ◽  
Di Wang
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Power Unit ◽  
Flow Resistance ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
Cooling Power ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Exhaust Pipe ◽  
Balanced Flow

Balancing flow distribution and decreasing the pressure drop in each vapor distributing pipe are the importance of the study of exhaust pipe of direct air cooling power unit.In order to balance flow distribution and decreasing the pressure drop in each vapor distributing pipe,and simulate the flow field when add different chamfer on the back of exhausted pipe or not ,then using the CFD software called FLUENT,the steam flow field of exhausted pipe for a 1000 MW power unit with direct air cooling is stimulated under typical steam turbine conditions.The result shows that the steam flows through each distribution pipe with balanced flow under the condition of chamfer angle of 30 °and the flow resistance is much lower than before．

CFD Investigation into Internal Flows of PEM Fuel Cell for Optimal Performances

2013 ◽  
Vol 724-725 ◽  
pp. 757-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi Jun Peng ◽  
Pattarapong Choopanya
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Active Surface ◽  
Parallel Flow ◽  
Percentage Error ◽  
Cell Dynamics ◽  
3 Dimensional ◽  
Serpentine Flow Field ◽  
Dry Conditions

It is the objective of this study to present the 3-dimensional comprehensive computational fuel cell dynamics (CFCD) model of a scaled-down single PEM cell featuring a nominal active surface of 0.0004 m2 for both conventional and serpentine flow field designs. The performance of these two designs are then analysed and compared keeping both anode and cathode inlet gases fully humidified. Then the parallel flow field was modelled under different inlet gas relative humidities (RHa/RHc) representing saturated, moderate, and dry conditions to observe the gain in cell performance. The higher pressure drop of the serpentine flow-field was demonstrated and the magnitude of which might seem to be negligible in the range of 100 Pascal. The simulation results show that a parallel flow-field design with appropriate humidity level can compete with the serpentine counterpart and gives considerably lower pressure drop across the cell. With a grid-independency analysis, it is suggested for the computational power available, the percentage error of important variables (species concentration and averaged current density) between the reference and finer mesh is negligible (< 3%) and the solution time is considerably less.

Simulation of Water Vapor Transport Phenomena in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs)

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. K. Ma ◽  
S. H. Huang
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Proton Exchange ◽  
Water Vapor Transport ◽  
Vapor Concentration ◽  
Operation Conditions ◽  
Flow Channels ◽  
Serpentine Flow Field ◽  
Electro Osmosis

The objective of this paper is to study the influences of water vapor concentration in membrane and flow channels under the different operation conditions. The studied flow channels by CFDRC code include serpentine and interdigitated flow channels which have different gas transportation mechanisms. At the same time, the computer code, based upon Okada’s one dimensional model, was built to predict the influences of the electro-osmosis effect, the foreign impurity cations and the water balance time on water concentration in the membrane by Fortran 90. Both of interdigitated and serpentine flow fields show that water vapor accumulates near the cathode outlet of the membrane. And, the serpentine flow field accumulates more water vapor than interdigitated flow field does. As the inlet water mass fraction below 10%, the drying out problem may happen to reduce current density. In addition, the foreign impurity cations may induce the stronger electro-osmosis effect and reduce the effect of water back diffusion; hence, cause the accumulating of water in the cathode. It needs more water balance time and decreases the membrane performance.

scholarly journals Scaling up Studies on PEMFC Using a Modified Serpentine Flow Field Incorporating Porous Sponge Inserts to Observe Water Molecules

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
Muthukumar Marappan ◽  
Rengarajan Narayanan ◽  
Karthikeyan Manoharan ◽  
Magesh Kannan Vijayakrishnan ◽  
Karthikeyan Palaniswamy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Proton Exchange Membrane ◽  
Electrochemical Impedance ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Gas Diffusion ◽  
Proton Exchange ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Serpentine Flow Field ◽  
Exchange Membrane ◽  
Power Densities

Flooding of the cathode flow channel is a major hindrance in achieving maximum performance from Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) during the scaling up process. Water accumulated between the interface region of Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) and rib of the cathode flow field can be removed by the use of Porous Sponge Inserts (PSI) on the ribs. In the present work, the experimental investigations are carried out on PEMFC for the various reaction areas, namely 25, 50 and 100 cm2. Stoichiometry value of 2 is maintained for all experiments to avoid variations in power density obtained due to differences in fuel utilization. The experiments include two flow fields, namely Serpentine Flow Field (SFF) and Modified Serpentine with Staggered provisions of 4 mm PSI (4 mm × 2 mm × 2 mm) Flow Field (MSSFF). The peak power densities obtained on MSSFF are 0.420 W/cm2, 0.298 W/cm2 and 0.232 W/cm2 compared to SFF which yields 0.242 W/cm2, 0.213 W/cm2 and 0.171 W/cm2 for reaction areas of 25, 50 and 100 cm2 respectively. Further, the reliability of experimental results is verified for SFF and MSSFF on 25 cm2 PEMFC by using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The use of 4 mm PSI is found to improve the performance of PEMFC through the better water management.

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