Study on Influence of Geometric Parameters on DMFC Performance Based on Experiments and CFD Simulations

摘要

To investigate the influence geometric parameters on the performance of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), experimental study and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based on modeling are conducted in the research. Three types of geometric configurations with serpentine flow channels and similar open areas with different widths are fabricated to be tested. The experimental results show that the geometric configuration with narrower width has better performance. To explain and understand such phenomena, a CFD based modeling is introduced. The model results show that the geometric configuration with narrower width has higher pressure inside the diffusion layers and more delivery of fuel and oxygen to the catalyst layers. Since high pressure and high fuel and oxygen delivery can improve the DMFC performance, the CFD model provides very good explanations to the experimental phenomena. The research results could provide some very useful guidelines for the design and optimization of DMFC system.