Experimental and numerical investigation on passive and active μDMFC

In this paper, design and fabrication of a micro direct methanol fuel cell based on stainless steel in two kind of active and passive with cross strip and parallel flow field are presented. Dropping pressure, velocity and heat transfer of the cell is simulated by a 3D modeling in fluent software. An optimum operating condition of the cell is obtained by the mass flow and temperature limitation. The cell was tested in different temperatures and mass flow rate and the cell performance is investigated in different condition. Maximum power density of the cell in active condition and at 60 °C was 170 mW/cm2 and in passive condition was 85 mW/cm2. A μDMFC with different flow field is investigated. Cross strip flow field has shown better performance and the effect of cell orientation on performance is also investigated.