Design and analysis of a proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC)

Flow distribution of both fuel and oxidant from the port to the individual cells critically control the performance of a PEMFC stack in combination. The low voltage generated in a fuel cell is compounded to usable value by stacking of cells. Under ideal conditions, a fuel cell stack performance is simply the sum of the performance of individual cells. However, this linear correlation is not achieved in practice. This is due to many reasons including poor distribution of reactants among different cells of the stack. Due to this flow mal-distribution, if the highest flow rate is adjusted at design value, other cells starve for fuel. Whereas, if the lowest flow rate is adjusted at the design value, other cells waste away the fuel. Hence, there is need to have accurate study of flow mal-distribution in a fuel cell and take remedial measures to reduce loss of output due to this flow deficiency. We present in this paper our efforts in this direction by simulating the distribution of fluids by analytical approach utilizing flow channeling model of a manifold to increase the power output of the fuel cell stack.