Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B (대한기계학회논문집B)

The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers (대한기계학회)
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Computational Fluid Dynamics Study on Performance Variation of PEMFC with Serpentine Flow Fields According to Humidity Condition

가습조건이 사형유로를 채택한 고분자 전해질 연료전지의 성능에 미치는 영향에 대한 전산유체역학 해석 연구

  • 오규환 (서울대학교 기계항공공학부) ;
  • 이규진 (서울대학교 기계항공공학부) ;
  • 남진현 (국민대학교 기계자동차공학부) ;
  • 김찬중 (서울대학교 기계항공공학부)
  • Published : 2009.08.01
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Abstract

Water management has been recognized as a crucial factor for achieving better performance and stability in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Proper water management should provide favorable water conditions, including the local humidity, membrane water content, and liquid water saturation in PEMFCs, thereby leading to more uniform electrochemical reaction and current generation. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was conducted to investigate the effects of the cathode relative humidity (RH) on the performance of a 3 by $3\;cm^2$ PEMFC with serpentine flow fields. The CFD results showed that the best performance of the PEMFC was obtained for the cathode RH of 80%, but the performance variation was small for the cathode RH range of $60{\sim}100%$. However, the loss of the PEMFC performance was significant when the cathode RH was reduced below 40%. The reason for such performance variation was investigated through the detailed inspection of ohmic loss, activation and concentration overpotential, and water and current distributions.

Keywords

References

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