A Numerical Study on the Effect of Flow Channel Modification on Temperature Profiles, Mass Transport Characteristics, and Performance of PEM Fuel Cell

Abstract

A Numerical Study on the Effect of Flow Channel Modification on Temperature Profiles, Mass Transport Characteristics, and Performance of PEM Fuel Cell Department of Mechanical Engineering Binyamin This study investigates innovative design approaches to enhance mass transport, the performance, and temperature profiles of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) by employing tapered flow field (TFF) models and streamlined imitated water drop blocks (WDBs) configuration of flow channels with considering porous medium thickness (PMT), thermal contact resistance (TCR), interface contact resistance (ICR), and GDL face permeability variations. A three-dimensional multiphase fuel cell model in ANSYS Fluent using SIMPLE solver was utilized to quantify the impact on oxygen mass transport, water removal, and overall cell performance by experimental data validation combined with an artificial neural network-genetic algorithm (ANN-GA). By employing the tapered flow field (TFF) models, results demonstrate superior performance to conventional FFCs, with a 68.74% reduction in pressure drop, a 7.57% increase in current density, and a 12.63% improvement in power density. Meanwhile, the streamlined imitated water-drop blocks (WDBs) model, considering suitable ICR and GDL face permeability, outperforms the conventional model by achieving higher current density (6.94%), power density (12.27%) and improved water removal (7.18%) at 0.4 V. The additional findings highlight the necessity of considering TCR and GDL face permeability to optimize temperature distribution and cell efficiency. The proposed combined artificial neural network-genetic algorithm (ANN-GA) method effectively identifies optimal operating conditions and predicts fuel cell performance. Overall, these innovative design strategies provide insights into optimizing PEMFC performance, guiding future developments in low-temperature PEMFC design. Keywords: PEM fuel cell, thermal contact resistance, tapered flow field configurations, imitated water-drop block, ANN-GA.