Numerical Investigation and Optimization of Cooling Flow Field Design for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

• Main Authors: Chen, L. (Author), Huang, Y. (Author), Li, T. (Author), Liu, Y. (Author), Ma, Z. (Author), Song, J. (Author), Zhang, X. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: Channel flow; computational fluid dynamics; Computational fluid dynamics; Cooling; Cooling flows; Cooling plates; Drops; flow field design; Flow fields; Flow-field design; Heat flux; honeycomb structure flow field; Honeycomb structure flow field; Honeycomb structures; Numerical investigations; Numerical optimizations; Plates (structural components); Pressure drop; proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC); Proton-exchange membranes fuel cells; Reynolds number; Serpentine; Spiral flow; Structural optimisations; structural optimization; Structural optimization; Temperature uniformity
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 High temperatures and non-uniform temperatures both have a negative bearing on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The temperature of proton exchange membrane fuel cells can be lowered by reasonably distributed cooling channels. The flow field distribution of five different cooling plates is designed, and the temperature uniformity, pressure drop and velocity of each cooling flow field are analyzed by computational fluid dynamics technology. The results show that while the pressure drop is high, the flow channel distribution of a multi-spiral flow field and honeycomb structure flow field contribute more to improving the temperature uniformity. As the coolant is blocked by the uniform plate, it is found that although the flow field channel with a uniform plate has poor performance in terms of temperature uniformity, its heat dissipation capacity is still better than that of the traditional serpentine flow field. The multi-spiral flow field has the strongest ability to maintain the temperature stability in the cooling plate when the heat flux increases. The increase in Reynolds number, although increasing the pressure drop, can reduce the maximum temperature and temperature difference of the flow field, ameliorate the temperature uniformity and improve the heat transfer capacity of the cooling plate. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.