Numerical investigation of effects of different flow channel configurations on the 100 cm2 PEM fuel cell performance under different operating conditions

The supply of species gases and removal of liquid water in a PEM fuel cell are performed through gas flow channels. Therefore, optimising the flow channel configurations is critical for maximising performance of fuel cells. In this paper, the ANSYS PEM Fuel Cell Module is used to simulate a PEM fuel cell with an active area of 100 cm2 and four different flow channel configurations: single-channel serpentine, two-channel serpentine, three-channel serpentine, and parallel channel with headers under two set of different operating conditions. Under both sets of operating conditions, the simulation results indicated that 3-channel serpentine configuration has the best performance due to uniform distribution of species gases over the catalyst layer. It was concluded from the simulation results that the pressure-drop along the 3-channel serpentine configuration is less compared to other serpentine channel configurations, which will require less power for the blowing in of the species gases. The results obtained from simulation under more optimal operating conditions (set 2) used by Hwang’s URFC, predicted increase in the performance of all the four channel configurations compared to the set 1 operating conditions due to higher cell temperature and stichometry of inlet gases. Under set 2 operating conditions, the values of pressure drop across all the channel configurations have increased substantially due to higher flow rates of inlet gases.