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A numerical investigation of serpentine flow channel with different bend sizes in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

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  • Rostami, Leila
  • Mohamad Gholy Nejad, Puriya
  • Vatani, Ali

Abstract

Bipolar plates are one of the key parts of a PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell). The flow fields of the bipolar plates distribute reactant gasses on the electrode surfaces. The flow channels should have an appropriate design to decrease the mass transport loss at a minimum pressure drop. Among different flow channels, serpentine flow channel received considerable attention for application in electrochemical cells. In this work, a three-dimensional numerical model is proposed and applied for studying the effect of bend sizes on a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell. The obtained results show that as bend size increases from 1 mm to 1.2 mm, not only does the over potential reduce significantly but temperature gradient is also alleviated. These welcome effects are largely due to a more even distribution of electrolytes over the electrode surface which eventually increases the power density of the fuel cell about 1.78% compared to channels with 0.8 mm square bend size. Moreover, it is shown that the serpentine flow channels with 1.2 mm square bend size act successfully in preventing secondary flows internal thereby decreasing pressure drop about 90.6% compared to serpentine flow channels with a bend size of 0.8 mm.

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  • Rostami, Leila & Mohamad Gholy Nejad, Puriya & Vatani, Ali, 2016. "A numerical investigation of serpentine flow channel with different bend sizes in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 400-410.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:97:y:2016:i:c:p:400-410
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.10.132
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Xing, Lei & Liu, Xiaoteng & Alaje, Taiwo & Kumar, Ravi & Mamlouk, Mohamed & Scott, Keith, 2014. "A two-phase flow and non-isothermal agglomerate model for a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 618-634.
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    1. Rostami, Leila & Haghshenasfard, Masoud & Sadeghi, Morteza & Zhiani, Mohammad, 2022. "A 3D CFD model of novel flow channel designs based on the serpentine and the parallel design for performance enhancement of PEMFC," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    2. Akira Nishimura & Daiki Mishima & Kyohei Toyoda & Syogo Ito & Mohan Lal Kolhe, 2023. "Numerical Simulation on Effect of Separator Thickness on Coupling Phenomena in Single Cell of PEFC under Higher Temperature Operation Condition at 363 K and 373 K," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-28, January.
    3. Wilberforce, Tabbi & Olabi, A.G. & Pritchard, Daniel & Abdelkareem, Mohammad Ali & Sayed, Enas Taha, 2023. "Development of proton exchange membrane fuel cell flow plate geometry design," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    4. Xu, Liangfei & Fang, Chuan & Hu, Junming & Cheng, Siliang & Li, Jianqiu & Ouyang, Minggao & Lehnert, Werner, 2017. "Parameter extraction of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell based on quasi-dynamic model and periphery signals," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-690.
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    6. Sadiq T. Bunyan & Hayder A. Dhahad & Dhamyaa S. Khudhur & Talal Yusaf, 2023. "The Effect of Flow Field Design Parameters on the Performance of PEMFC: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-62, June.
    7. Zhang, Xian-Wen & Wang, Xue-Jian & Cheng, Xiao-Zhang & Jin, Lei & Zhu, Jian-Wei & Zhou, Tao-Tao, 2020. "Numerical analysis of global and local performance variations of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with different bend layouts and flow directions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    8. Mohammadi-Ahmar, Akbar & Solati, Ali & Osanloo, Behzad & Hatami, Mohammad, 2017. "Effect of number and arrangement of separator electrode assembly (SEA) on the performance of square tubular PEM fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 302-313.
    9. Chien, Chi-Hui & Hu, Yao-Lun & Su, Ting-Hsuan & Liu, Hsuan-Ting & Wang, Chung-Ting & Yang, Ping-Feng & Lu, Ying-Xu, 2016. "Effects of bolt pre-loading variations on performance of GDL in a bolted PEMFC by 3-D FEM analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1174-1187.
    10. Najmi, Aezid-Ul-Hassan & Anyanwu, Ikechukwu S. & Xie, Xu & Liu, Zhi & Jiao, Kui, 2021. "Experimental investigation and optimization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell using different flow fields," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    11. Yin, Cong & Gao, Jianlong & Wen, Xuhui & Xie, Guangyou & Yang, Chunhua & Fang, Honglin & Tang, Hao, 2016. "In situ investigation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance with novel segmented cell design and a two-phase flow model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1071-1089.
    12. Xiong, Kangning & Wu, Wei & Wang, Shuangfeng & Zhang, Lin, 2021. "Modeling, design, materials and fabrication of bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cell: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    13. Cai, Yonghua & Fang, Zhou & Chen, Ben & Yang, Tianqi & Tu, Zhengkai, 2018. "Numerical study on a novel 3D cathode flow field and evaluation criteria for the PEM fuel cell design," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 28-37.
    14. Akira Nishimura & Kyohei Toyoda & Yuya Kojima & Syogo Ito & Eric Hu, 2021. "Numerical Simulation on Impacts of Thickness of Nafion Series Membranes and Relative Humidity on PEMFC Operated at 363 K and 373 K," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-24, December.
    15. Wilberforce, Tabbi & El Hassan, Zaki & Ogungbemi, Emmanuel & Ijaodola, O. & Khatib, F.N. & Durrant, A. & Thompson, J. & Baroutaji, A. & Olabi, A.G., 2019. "A comprehensive study of the effect of bipolar plate (BP) geometry design on the performance of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 236-260.
    16. Guodong Zhang & Zhen Guan & Da Li & Guoxiang Li & Shuzhan Bai & Ke Sun & Hao Cheng, 2023. "Optimization Design of a Parallel Flow Field for PEMFC with Bosses in Flow Channels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-26, July.
    17. Suprava Chakraborty & Devaraj Elangovan & Karthikeyan Palaniswamy & Ashley Fly & Dineshkumar Ravi & Denis Ashok Sathia Seelan & Thundil Karuppa Raj Rajagopal, 2022. "A Review on the Numerical Studies on the Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) Flow Channel Designs for Automotive Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-21, December.
    18. Yu, Zhongshuai & Liu, Fang & Li, Chengzhang, 2023. "Numerical study on effects of hydrogen ejector on PEMFC performances," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    19. Chowdhury, Mohammad Ziauddin & Timurkutluk, Bora, 2018. "Transport phenomena of convergent and divergent serpentine flow fields for PEMFC," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 104-117.
    20. Wu, Horng-Wen & Ho, Tzu-Yi & Han, Yueh-Jung, 2021. "Parametric optimization of wall-mounted cuboid rows installed in interdigitated flow channel of HT-PEM fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    21. Akira Nishimura & Kyohei Toyoda & Daiki Mishima & Syogo Ito & Eric Hu, 2022. "Numerical Analysis on Impact of Thickness of PEM and GDL with and without MPL on Coupling Phenomena in PEFC Operated at Higher Temperature Such as 363 K and 373 K," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-31, August.
    22. Liu, Yongfeng & Wang, Na & Pei, Pucheng & Yao, Shengzhuo & Wang, Fang, 2018. "Asymptotic analysis of anode relative humidity effects on the fastest voltage decay single cell in a stack," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 490-500.

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