• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2007

The objective of this study is to develop a 3D DMFC model for modeling gas evolution and flow patterns to design optimal flow field for gas management. The gas management on the anode side is an important issue in DMFC design and it greatly influences the performance of the fuel cell. The flow field is tightly related to gas management and distribution. Since experiment for the optimal design of various flow fields is difficult and expensive due to high bipolar plate cost, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is implemented to solve the problem. A two-fluid model was developed for CFD based flow field design. The CFD analysis is used to visualize and to analyze the flow pattern and to reduce the number of experiments. Case studies of typical flow field designs such as serpentine, zigzag, parallel and semi-serpentine type illustrate applications of the model. This study presents simulation results of velocity, pressure, methanol mole fraction and gas content distribution. The suggested model is verified to be useful for the optimal flow field design.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.199-204
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• 2013

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to reduce number of experiments. The CFD tools are widely used for engine design and flow pattern analysis to reduce experiments. In this study the performance of a PEMFC single cell was analyzed by using STAR-CD, product of CD-ADAPCO. The effect of cell design and flow pattern on the performance of a PEMFC was analyzed with the 3-D simulation. As a result the performance of rectangular cell was the higher than that of square cell, while the flow direction scarcely affected on the performance of a PEMFC. Also the current density according to different excess ratio of air flow rate was compared and analyzed. The difference between maximum and minimum current density of flip-flow was lower than that of co-flow.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.492-498
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• 2009

Six sigma methode was applied for optimization of flow field design of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The optimization between number of channel and channel/rib width was suggested in this paper with six sigma method. With the help of six sigma design of experiment (DOE) the number of experiments may be reduced dramatically. The fuel cell channel design optimization with results of these experiments with a 100 $cm^2$ serpentine flow field indicates a optimization data for a given constant operating conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.74-82
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• 2012

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance is changed by the complicated physical phenomenon. In this study, water discharge performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell were performed numerically to compare serpentine channel flow fields of 5-pass 4-turn serpentine and 25 $cm^2$ reaction surface between with and without sub-channel at the rib. Through the supplement of sub channel flow field, it is shown from the results that water removal characteristic inside channel improves because the flow direction of under-rib convection is changed into the sub channel. Reacting gases supplied from entrance disperse into sub channel flow field and electrochemical reaction occurs uniformly over the reaction surface. The results obtained that total current density distributions become uniform because residence time of reacting gases traveling to sub-channel flow field is longer than to main channel.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.145.2-145.2
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• 2010

탄소복합소재 분리판의 연료전지 성능을 시험하기 위해 소형 고분자연료전지 스택을 제작하였으며 연료전지 운전에 따른 성능변화를 측정하여 탄소복합소재 분리판이 연료전지 스택의 성능에 미치는 영향을 조사하였다. 자체 설계한 가스유로로 디자인된 분리판과 MEA를 적층한 스택의 초기 성능과 장기간 운전에 따른 전압 감소를 측정하였다. 또한 장시간 운전 동안 각 셀의 전압 거동도 함께 측정하였으며 비교를 위해 흑연 분리판을 이용하여 제작한 스택의 성능도 함께 시험하였다. 스택에서 각 셀의 성능은 단위전지에서의 성능과 유사하게 나타나 분리판과 스택의 구조가 셀의 성능을 충분히 보여줄 만큼 적절히 디자인된 것을 알 수 있었으며, 장시간 운전 동안 전류가 증가함에 따라 스택의 성능 감소도 점차 증가하였으며 두 종류의 스택이 유사한 성능 감소를 보여 자체 제작한 탄소복합소재 분리판이 흑연 분리판과 유사한 성능을 보임을 알 수 있었다.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.143-146
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• 2002

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.170-177
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• 2006

Optimum design of flow channel in the separation plate of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell is very prerequisite to reduce concentration over potential at high current region and remove the water generated in cathode effectively. In this paper, fully 3 dimensional computational model which solves anode and cathode flow fields simultaneously is developed in order to compare the performance of fuel cell with parallel and interdigitated flow channels. Oxygen and water concentration and pressure drop are calculated and i-V performance characteristics are compared between flows with two flow channels. Results show that performance of fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel is hi민or than that with parallel flow channel at high current region because hydrogen and oxygen in interdigitated flow channel are transported to catalyst layer effectively due to strong convective transport through gas diffusion layer but pressure drop is larger than that in parallel flow channel. Therefore Trade-off between power gain and pressure loss should be considered in design of fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel.

• Clean Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.243-250
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• 2001

The fuel cell has been continuously studied as environment-compatible alternative energy technology. Lately the basic techniques about stacking and widening are considered to be important for practical use. Although phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) is the most progressed one in the fuel cell technologies, few studies about temperature profile of the stack which can be the basic data for the fuel cell design have been reported yet. In this study, the temperature profile of PAFC stack was simulated. The temperature profiles of stack were obtained at various operating conditions, and when stack is operated the proper position to measure the temperature could be predicted. Also we can propose more effective cooling design. The standard deviation of the temperature profile of the proposed design was is about 50% smaller.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.317-324
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• 2010

Metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have been developed to commercialize SOFCs. This new type of SOFC has high mechanical strength, but its mass transfer rate may be low due to the presence of a contact layer. In this study, the mass transfer characteristics of an anode-supported SOFC and a metal-supported SOFC are studied by performing numerical simulation. Governing equations, electrochemical reactions, and ceramic physical-property models are determined simultaneously; molecular diffusion and Knudsen diffusion are considered in mass transport analysis of porous media. The experimental results are compared with simulation data to validate the results of numerical simulation. The average current density of the metal-supported SOFC is 23% lower than that of the anode-supported SOFC. However, because of the presence of the contact layer, the metal-supported SOFC has a more uniform distribution than the anode-supported SOFC.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2009

PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) is a low temperature fuel cells which are high efficient and clean energy. But it has many problems like economical efficiency or durability. Because of this reason, many researchers challenge various view points. One of challenge is the flow channel design and many researchers develop new flow channel design. In addition to most of them have the anode and cathode's flow channel overlapped almost perfectly. In this case, the electrochemical reaction is almost done by the inertial force of flow. So we study on the effect of the anode and cathode's flow channel which aren't overlapped perfectly, have more diffusion effect, to PEMFC performance using CFD.