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Analysis of Flow Variation in a Straight Channel with Baffled Obstacles on a Bipolar Plate in a Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

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Abstract

The channel structure of a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is very important for sustaining high performance with a reliable lifetime. There have been numerous computational studies to investigate the physics of electrochemical reactions with various flow field phenomena. Because straight channels reduce manufacturing costs, a straight channel was selected as the subject of a numerical study to investigate water removal and oxygen starvation in the channel. In this study, the liquid saturation distribution caused by the baffled obstacle geometry of a PEMFC with channels that were straight and parallel was analyzed in a computational study. Because baffled obstacles generate a vortex in the channel, the flow field structure improves the supply of reactants. When the operating pressure is reduced from 3 atm to 1 atm, the baffled obstacle structure interrupts the flow of reactant and product water so that the accumulation of liquid water increases from 0.75 to 0.86 in catalyst layer. As the number of baffled obstacles was increased from 13 to 19, the current density improved from 0.772 to 0.773 A/cm2 in the reference condition. The baffled obstacle geometry also affects the liquid water accumulation flow field. Results show that the design of the baffled obstacles in a channel should consider the number of baffled obstacles along with the baffled obstacle geometry such that water removal is accelerated.

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Abbreviations

N:

number of baffled obstacles

H:

height of baffled obstacles

ρ:

density

t:

time

\(\overrightarrow {\rm{v}} \) :

velocity

P :

pressure

\(\overline{\overline \tau } \) :

stress tensor

\(\overrightarrow {\rm{F}} \) :

external force

\(\overrightarrow {\rm{g}} \) :

gravity

E:

total energy

H:

enthalpy

J:

mass diffusivity

S:

source term

Yi :

local mass fraction

Ri :

net rate of production

Si :

rate of creation source term

Di,m :

mass diffusion coefficient

Dt,i :

thermal diffusion coefficient

R:

current density

ζ :

specific active surface area

j:

reference exchange current density per active surface area

[A]:

local species concentration at anode

[C]:

local species concentration at cathode

γ:

concentration dependence

α:

transfer coefficient

η:

surface overpotential

F:

faraday constant

R:

universal gas constant

λ:

water content

nd :

osmotic drag coefficient

ε:

porosity

S:

liquid saturation

γs, γp, γt :

defined values of PEMFC user-defined functions (2.5, 1.0, and 1.5)

\({D_i}^0\) :

Mass diffusivity of species i at reference pressure and temperature

M:

molecular weight

EW:

equivalent weight

\({{\vec \iota }_{\rm{m}}}\) :

ionic current density at the membrane

S λ :

water generation rate at cathode CL

S gd :

rate of mass change between gas and dissolved phase

S ld :

rate of mass change between liquid and dissolved phase

K:

absolute permeability

Kr :

relative permeability

μ:

dynamic viscosity

i, j:

species

an:

anode

cat:

cathode

ref, 0:

reference value

w, l, liq:

liquid water

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning) (No. 2019R1A2C1087784) and supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (No. 20203010030010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Korea

    Dongjin Yu

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Korea

    Sangseok Yu

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  1. Dongjin Yu
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Yu, D., Yu, S. Analysis of Flow Variation in a Straight Channel with Baffled Obstacles on a Bipolar Plate in a Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell. Int.J Automot. Technol. 24, 759–771 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-023-0063-0

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