Transient performance investigation of different flow-field designs of automotive polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

摘要

Transient performance of a polymer electrolyte membraneud(PEM) fuel cell in terms of the time-dependent current densityudprofile that responds to the varying cell potential is of criticaludimportance for an automotive PEM fuel cell. A step change inudcell potential is applied to the cell terminals to simulate audsudden change in load demand due to an engine startup or veryudhigh acceleration. The transient responses of the three mostudcommonly used flow-fields, namely, parallel, single-serpentine,udand interdigitated designs in terms of the magnitude of currentudovershoot and time taken to adjust to the new equilibrium stateudare compared. The results suggest the serpentine flow-fieldudoutperforms its two counterparts as it balances the satisfactoryudtransient performance with an expense of acceptable pressureuddrop across the cell and hence it is the most appropriate designudto be used in automotive PEM fuel cells.