Uniformity Analysis in Different Flow Field Configurations of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Abstract

Knowledge of the distributions of various properties within a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is a prerequisite for the improvement of cell performance, stability, and durability. In this paper, statistical tools are employed to investigate the variations of the current density, membrane water content, and local temperature in six flowfield configurations of PEM fuel cells, utilizing a threedimensional twophase multicomponent model. Under the same operating conditions, although the polarizations of the cells are similar, the results show that the extent of the uniformity of different physical properties varies in different flowfield configurations. Due to the proper distributions of reactants, the current density, membrane water content, and temperature in channelperpendicular flowfields are distributed more uniformly than in channeloverlapping ones. Furthermore, for all flowfield configurations, the three physical properties showed better uniformity in cases with fewer cathodic serpentine channels than in cases with more channels. These results reveal that a uniformity analysis using statistical tools is useful for a comparison of the merits of different configurations of PEM fuel cells.