Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5145298 | International Journal of Hydrogen Energy | 2017 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Water flooding at the cathode is a critical issue in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, since it will block the oxygen transport, resulting in a large concentration loss. To address this issue, two tapered flow fields with varying height or width are proposed in this study, as the tapered channels can gradually increase flow velocity which is beneficial in water removal. To confirm the proposed function, both experiments and simulation are performed. The results prove that the tapered flow fields with high velocity at the downstream region can significantly enhance water removal in flow channels, which avoids the mass transport limitation and improves the cell performance at high current densities. Additionally, the tapered design can also enhance the under-rib convection between adjacent channels, which helps to remove accumulated water in the gas diffusion layer.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemistry
Electrochemistry
Authors
Chao Wang, Qinglei Zhang, Jiabin Lu, Shuiyun Shen, Xiaohui Yan, Fengjuan Zhu, Xiaojing Cheng, Junliang Zhang,