3D numerical investigation of clamping pressure effect on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with interdigitated flow field

In this work, the performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) with interdigitated gas distributor under clamping pressure is numerically studied. A three-dimensional model of PEMFC has been developed and used to study the effect of displacement and deformation caused by clamping pressure on the transport phenomena and device performance. The influence of different parameters such as gas diffusion layer porosity, permeability, thickness, Poisson ratio, and density on the performance of a fuel cell with interdigitated gas distributor on both anode and cathode sides is studied. Obtained results show that there is an optimum range for clamping pressure, caused by assembly force, in which PEMFC performance is in its maximum state. This range depends on the thickness of the gas diffusion layer. The optimum clamping pressures for the thickness of 0.11, 0.254, and 0.37 mm are 395 kPa, 696 kPa, and 1101 kPa, respectively. Furthermore, our findings reveal that the optimum clamping pressure improves the temperature distribution in the fuel cell with the interdigitated flow field. Studying the distribution of water saturation at the cathode catalyst layer demonstrates that the higher the clamping pressure, the lower the water volume fraction and consequently the lower fuel cell performance.