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This study investigates the enhancement of the oxygen diffusion rate in the cathode channel of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) by pure oscillating flow, which is the same as the mechanism of human breathe. Three-dimensional numerical simulation, which has the full model of the fuel cell including electrochemical reaction, ion and electronic conduction, mass transfer and thermal variation and so on, is performed to show the phenomena in the channel at the case of a steady state. This model could analysis the oscillating flow as a moving mesh calculation coupled with electrochemical reaction on the catalyst layer, however, it needs a lot of calculation time for each case. The two dimensional numerical simulation has carried on for the study of oscillating flow effect in the cathode channel of PEMFC in order to reduce the calculation time. This study shows the diffusion rate of the oxygen increased and the emission rate of the water vapor increased in the channel by oscillating flow without any forced flow.
[Figure 1] Channel model for PEMFCs
[Figure 2] Comparison data between the experiment and numerical results
[Figure 3] Enhanced diffusion rate with respect to Womersly number
[Figure 4] Variation of the oxygen concentration in the channel
[Figure 5] Variation of water vapor concentration according to the channel length