Technical Paper
A Study on the CFD-guided Gas Flow Field Plate Optimization of a PEM Fuel Cell with Wave Flow Channels
2024-04-09
2024-01-2747
The gas flow field design of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is crucial to achieve high and stable performance. Since the mass transfer process of air is much more difficult than that of hydrogen, and the possible occurrence of flooding could make performance deteriorate rapidly, the gas flow in the cathode plate is especially important. In the present study, three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted to evaluate and optimize the performance of a baseline flow field pattern, which is characterized by wave flow channels. The active area is up to the same order as that of commercial products. To consider the turbulent flow, the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach coupled with the standard k-ω model was used. Moreover, a blend of the viscous and log-law solutions was implemented to calculate the specific dissipation rate in grids near the wall.