A Numerical Modeling Study on The Influence of Flow Field Inlet Direction on The Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

摘要

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has advantages of high energy conversion efficiency and pollution free, and is one of the ideal energy devices. As a key component, flow field design influences the useful life, mass transfer and overall output performance of PEMFC, and has always been a research hotspot. In this paper, three-dimensional numerical models of parallel flow field have been established to study the influence of vertical inlet direction and horizontal inlet direction on the PEMFC’s performance. The results show that parallel flow field with horizonal inlet has higher net power output and also has significant advantages over the uniform distribution of pressure, oxygen mass fraction and temperature.