Study of a micro-structured PHE for the thermal management of a fuel cell

In the constantly growing market of fuel cells, the heat management of the system is a crucial area of research, since it affects the efficiency, operability and lifetime of the fuel cell. The CFD simulations performed for a plate heat exchanger (PHE) with flat plates clearly demonstrate temperature non-uniformity across the membrane of the unit cell. The CFD code was successfully validated with experimental data acquired from a set-up that reproduces the geometry and simulates the thermal behaviour of a typical unit PEMFC. Additionally, the performance of a novel PHE, with micro-structured corrugations on its plates, was studied with the previously validated CFD code. The results clearly show that the proposed plate modifications can increase temperature uniformity across the membrane by more than 60% compared to that of the flat plate. The corresponding increase of pressure drop is significantly lower when compared to similar modifications proposed in the literature for thermal management of fuel cells while this design can be easily implemented in mobile and low-power stationary applications.