Computational Evaluation of an Enhanced Serpentine Flow Field Design for PEM Fuel Cells

Abstract: Fuel cell is a electro-chemical energy conversion system, which converts the chemical energy of fuel, directly into electrical energy. The ever increase in energy demand, non-polluting energy generation, and other environmental issues have persuaded many researchers to look for new efficient energy conversion technologies. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells have many unique features compared with other types of fuel cell, such as relatively low operating temperature (around 80ᴼC), high power density, quick start, rapid response, and high modularity which makes them as the most promising system in the applications such as automotive, distributed power generation and portable electronic devices. In this work, a new compound serpentine flow field is introduced and conducted simulations to study its performance. A 3-D PEM fuel cell model of size 49 cm2 and 84 cm2 active area is developed. A conventional serpentine flow field is modified and the same is considered for the supply of reactants. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based simulations were conducted to analyse the pressure drop, distribution of reactants (H2 and O2), liquid water activity, current flux density and water content in the membrane.