A three-dimensional modeling of transport phenomena of proton exchange membrane fuel cells with various flow fields

In this work, a two-phase three-dimensional numerical transport model based on the two-fluid method for the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) with parallel flow field, interdigitated flow field, and serpentine flow field has been presented to study the cell performance and transport phenomena in the PEMFCs. The effects of width, height and aspect ratio of the flow channel on the cell performance and water removal with different flow fields are under investigation. Results show the liquid water removal increases as the channel height decreases, however, the cell performance decreases as well. It is also found that the cell performance decreases as the channel width increases in parallel flow field due to lower gas velocity with less water removal. The effect of channel aspect ratio approximate to 1 is particularly studied in this paper. It reveals that the cell performance is better as the channel cross-section area is smaller because of higher gas velocities.