Development of flow field plates based on asymmetric leaf structure for PEM fuel cells

摘要

Bipolar plates are the key parts of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell, which allow the reaction gas to be more evenly distributed over the electrode surface, so that the fuel cell can achieve the best performance. In this paper, a novel asymmetric flow channel is used to design the bipolar plate of PEM fuel cells. It is demonstrated by numerical simulation that the structure of the asymmetrical bionic flow field plate, shows pressure loss from the inlet to outlet less than the pressure loss of the conventional flow field. In the design of asymmetrical bionic flow channel structure, it can scatter gas into each bifurcation channel uniformly, improving the efficiency of gas reaction and pushing the water generated during the reaction from each branch to the outlet, which may be conducive to prevent water flooding of the fuel cell.