The Effects of Cathode Channel Side Blockage on Enhanced Performance of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell 2024-01-2180

Flow channels in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) play an irreplaceable role, and flow channel design in bipolar plates is one of the most active research areas at present. The flow channel on the cathode side needs to discharge liquid water out of the fuel cell in time and allow oxygen to flow to the cathode catalytic layer as much as possible to avoid the phenomenon of cathode water flooding and mass transfer loss. In order to improve the performance of PEMFC, a method of setting both side blockages in the cathode flow channel is proposed. In this paper, lateral blockage models with three shapes are proposed to study the influence of blockage on mass transfer and performance. First, a 3D PEMFC model with a middle channel was built to calculate the fuel cell power at different discharge rates. Secondly, a preliminary three-dimensional model of the blockage in the cathode flow channel of the fuel cell was established, a simulation analysis was carried out to study the influence of blockage shape on mass transfer, and an optimization analysis was carried out. The study found that the blockage's cross-sectional shape greatly influenced mass transfer enhancement in PEMFC. Compared with the straight-through channel, the arrangement of lateral blockages can increase the oxygen concentration in the diffusion layer, which can help discharge liquid water and effectively improve the performance of PEMFC. It was determined that the best fuel cell performance at high current density was achieved when the blockage shape was P2. At a current density of 1.5 A cm2, a blockage with a flow-conducting structure P2 helped to remove the liquid water at this interface, improving the cell performance by 17% PEMFC can obtain excellent performance.