The present study proposes a modified serpentine flow field design in which the channel heights vary along each straight flow path to enhance reactant transport and liquid water removal. An optimization approach, comb...The present study proposes a modified serpentine flow field design in which the channel heights vary along each straight flow path to enhance reactant transport and liquid water removal. An optimization approach, combining a simplified conjugate-gradient method (inverse solver) and a three-dimensional, two-phase, non-isothermal fuel cell model (direct solver), has been developed to optimize the key geometric parameters. The optimal design has tapered channels for channels 1, 3 and 4 and increasing heights for channels 2 and 5 with the flow widths first increasing and then decreasing. The optimal channel heights and widths enhance the efficiency by 22.51% compared with the basic design having all heights and widths of 1 mm. The diverging channels have a greater impact on cell performance than fine adjustments of the channel widths for the present simulation conditions. The channel heights have more effect on the sub-rib convection, while the channel widths affect the uniformity of the fuel delivery more. The reduced channel heights of channels 2–4 significantly enhance the sub-rib convection to effectively transport oxygen to and liquid water out of the diffusion layer. The final diverging channel prevents significant leakage of fuel to the outlet via sub-rib convection.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50876009)the Engineering Research Institute Foundation of USTB
文摘The present study proposes a modified serpentine flow field design in which the channel heights vary along each straight flow path to enhance reactant transport and liquid water removal. An optimization approach, combining a simplified conjugate-gradient method (inverse solver) and a three-dimensional, two-phase, non-isothermal fuel cell model (direct solver), has been developed to optimize the key geometric parameters. The optimal design has tapered channels for channels 1, 3 and 4 and increasing heights for channels 2 and 5 with the flow widths first increasing and then decreasing. The optimal channel heights and widths enhance the efficiency by 22.51% compared with the basic design having all heights and widths of 1 mm. The diverging channels have a greater impact on cell performance than fine adjustments of the channel widths for the present simulation conditions. The channel heights have more effect on the sub-rib convection, while the channel widths affect the uniformity of the fuel delivery more. The reduced channel heights of channels 2–4 significantly enhance the sub-rib convection to effectively transport oxygen to and liquid water out of the diffusion layer. The final diverging channel prevents significant leakage of fuel to the outlet via sub-rib convection.
