Welcome to Journal of Automotive Safety and Energy,

Journal of Automotive Safety and Energy ›› 2024, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (3): 351-359.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8484.2024.03.008

• Automotive Energy Efficiency and Environment Protection • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Structural design and mass-transfer performances of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with a traveling-wave flow-field

ZHU Xinning1(), WANG Xi1, LIU Rongkang1, ZHU Siming1, ZHANG Jianbo2, ZHOU Wei1,*()   

  1. 1. Pen-Tung Sah Institute of Micro-Nano Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361100, China
    2. State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Green Vehicle and Mobility (Former: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Received:2023-09-15 Revised:2023-12-21 Online:2024-06-30 Published:2024-07-01

Abstract:

A traveling-wave flow-field plate with an arc concave surface was designed as an enhanced mass transfer structure to improve the mass transfer performances of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and to improve the power density of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). By combining milling technology, the manufacturing of traveling wave flow field structures has been achieved. Using computational fluid dynamics software, a three-dimensional model of the PEMFC was established, including the traveling wave flow field and MEA. The accuracy of the model was experimentally verified. Explored the distribution pattern of enhanced mass transfer structure on the internal velocity field, concentration field, and electric field of PEMFC, and analyzed the improvement effect of PEMFC performance. The results showed that compared with the conventional flow field with a channel 0.6 mm depth and 0.8 mm width, the average flow velocity of the traveling wave flow field in this article increased by 27.7%, the pressure loss decreased by 19.2%, the oxygen content at the interface between the flow field plate and MEA increased by 1.44%, the drainage rate at the outlet increased by 16.7%, and the power density increased by 8.6%.

Key words: proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), traveling-wave flow-field, mass transfer performances, power density

CLC Number: