• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.170-177
• /
• 2006

Optimum design of flow channel in the separation plate of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell is very prerequisite to reduce concentration over potential at high current region and remove the water generated in cathode effectively. In this paper, fully 3 dimensional computational model which solves anode and cathode flow fields simultaneously is developed in order to compare the performance of fuel cell with parallel and interdigitated flow channels. Oxygen and water concentration and pressure drop are calculated and i-V performance characteristics are compared between flows with two flow channels. Results show that performance of fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel is hi민or than that with parallel flow channel at high current region because hydrogen and oxygen in interdigitated flow channel are transported to catalyst layer effectively due to strong convective transport through gas diffusion layer but pressure drop is larger than that in parallel flow channel. Therefore Trade-off between power gain and pressure loss should be considered in design of fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.407-410
• /
• 2006

Selection of flow channel in the separation plate of PEMFC is very important parameter to improve its performance and reduce parasite loss. Flow patterns in the channel have great influence on the transport of hydrogen and all and water generated from electrochemical reaction in diffusion layer In this study, fluid flow in flow channel with parallel and interdigitated patterns are simulated three dimensionally on full flow domain including anode and cathode electrode together. The numerical results show that the fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel represents better performance than that with parallel flow channel due to its strong convective transport across the gas diffusion layer. But the pressure drop in parallel flow channel is much more than that in nterdigitated flow channel. The effect of temperature and stoichiometric number on performance can be calculated and analyzed as well.

• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.2 no.4 s.8
• /
• pp.78-85
• /
• 2006

Selection of flow channel in the separation plate of PEMFC is very important parameter to improve its performance and reduce parasite loss. Flow patterns in the channel have great influence on the transport of hydrogen and air and removal of water generated from electrochemical reaction in diffusion layer. In this study. fluid flow in flow channel with parallel and interdigitated patterns are simulated three dimensionally on full flow domain including anode and cathode channel together. The numerical results show that the fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel represents better performance than that with parallel flow channel due to its strong convective transport across the gas diffusion layer. But the pressure drop in parallel flow channel is much more than that in interdigitated flow channel. And effects of temperature and stoichiometric number on performance can be calculated and analyzed as well. Nomenclature.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.193-200
• /
• 2014

Research on flow channel designs of the separate plates is necessary to improve the PEMFC performance. On concerning the performance improvement of PEMFC, many recent studies have been made on the interdigitated flow channel using forced convection. In this paper, the interdigitated flow channel is similarly applied on the parallel flow channel with a baffle or baffles. Numerical analysis is performed by using a commercial multiphysics program, which is called COMSOL, on the parallel channel with the fully blocked baffle(FBB) and there are three variables, the position of baffle, flow direction and flow velocity. Each power of the variables is resulted from the fixed 0.5V, the voltage from 80 percents of the maximum power. Finally, based on the full factorial designs(FFD), one of the design of experiments(DOE), each factor which has several levels lead to the conclusion. The analysis of the main effects and interactions of the factors is useful to find the most influenced factor to improve the power.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.357-362
• /
• 2011

This paper demonstrates a novel electrodynamic technique to remove particles from the wall of microchannels. Dielectrohporesis(DEP) is generated by applying alternating electric potentials to the interdigitated electrodes integrated at the bottom of the micro-channel. The proposed technique is applied to a general microfluidic channel as a feasibility test. To examine the wall loss reduction efficiency, 10 ${\mu}m$ diameter Polystyrene latexes(PSL) were supplied to the inlet of the device. Then, the concentration of collected particles through devices was measured. In the experiment for 10 ${\mu}m$ diameter PSL particles, the concentration of the injected particles was $174.25{\times}10^4$ particles/ml. However, the concentration of collected particles at the outlet was $52.25{\times}10^4$ particles/ml. Only 30 % of particles had arrived at the outlet and 70 % of particles had adhered to the wall of the microfluidic channel. By applying alternating electric potentials from 0 to 20 $V_{pp}$ at 3 MHz, the concentration of injected particles was 135.00${\times}10^4$ particles/ml, the concentration of collected particles was increased as $105.25{\times}10^4$ particles/ml at 20 $V_{pp}$ at the outlet. When the electric potential was 20 $V_{pp}$, the particle loss was decreased by 39 % (initial loss: 70 %, loss at 20 Vpp: 31 %) with 10 ${\mu}m$ particle. The particle loss was decreased along to the incensement of electric potentials and the enlargement of the diameter of particles. According to these measured results, it was confirmed that the proposal of using DEP technique could be a good candidate for particle loss reduction in micro-particle processing chip application. Moreover, it is expected that the proposed technique could enhance performance of microfluidic and biochip devices.