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Enhancing the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell by optimizing the operating parameter

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Abstract

In present paper it is tried to concentrate to the configurations of gas channels and gas diffusion layers influences on the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. At first, increasing the number of channels is considered and observed such that the best results are gained with the case of three channels. Afterward, effect of prominent GDLs is studied. The prominences size is one of the main parameters which affect the performance. For this purpose, radius (R) of prominences is grown gradually. The optimal performance is obtained in the case of R = 0.45. In addition, the inlet velocity of gas flow is surveyed. The results indicate that when the inlet velocity of gases is set about 0.2 m s−1, the species diffusion is optimized. Also, the height of channels is investigated to find out the optimal channel height. It is found that the highest performance is achieved in channel height about h = 1 mm and R = 0.45 mm.

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Abbreviations

C :

Concentration of species (mol m−3)

D :

Mass diffusion coefficient (m2 s−1)

I :

Local current density (A cm−2)

K :

Permeability (m2)

n d :

Electro-osmotic drag coefficient

P :

Pressure (Pa)

T :

Temperature (K)

u :

Velocity vector

k :

Anode or cathode

v :

Volume (m3)

ρ :

Density (kg m−3)

ε eff :

Effective porosity

Φ e :

Electrolyte phase potential (varies from − 1 to 1) (V)

μ :

Viscosity (kg m−1 s−1)

σ m :

Protonic conductivity (1 ohm−1 m−1)

κ:

Membrane ionic conductivity (S m−1)

L :

Gas channel length

h :

Gas channel height

ch:

Channel

Bp:

Bipolar plate

R :

Prominence radius

MEA:

Membrane electrolyte assembly

GDL:

Gas diffusion layer

cop:

Cathode over potential

aop:

Anode over potential

AR:

Prominences aspect ratio compared to channel

Re :

Reynolds number

l:

Liquid phase

g:

Gas phase

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Shaheed Beheshti, Technical and Vocational University (TVU), Urmia, Iran

    Nima Ahmadi & Sadra Rostami

  2. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran

    Nima Ahmadi

Authors
  1. Nima Ahmadi
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  2. Sadra Rostami
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Correspondence to Nima Ahmadi.

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Technical Editor: Jader Barbosa Jr., Ph.D.

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Ahmadi, N., Rostami, S. Enhancing the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell by optimizing the operating parameter. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 41, 220 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-019-1720-0

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