CFD Analysis on a Flow Channel of a Bipolar Plate with Varying Cross-sectional Area in a PEM Fuel Cell

PEM 연료전지용 Bipolar Plate의 변화단면 유로에 대한 CFD 해석

A flow channel model of a bipolar plate with varying cross-sectional area was newly designed for improving performance and efficiency of a PEM fuel cell stack. As a result, the varying cross-sectional area model showed poor uniformity in velocity distribution, however, maximum velocity in the flow path is about 30% faster than that of the uniform cross-sectional area model. The proposed varying cross-sectional area model is expected to diffuse operating fluids more easily into diffusion layer because it has relatively higher values in pressure distribution compared with other flow channel models. It is expected that the implementation of the varying cross-sectional area model can reduce not only the mass transport loss but also the activation loss in a PEM fuel cell, and open circuit voltage of a fuel cell can thus be increased slightly.