A novel cooling flow field design for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack

Efficient operation of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is hugely dependent on an effective cooling system. Non-uniformity of temperature causes a varying rate of electrochemical reaction at different places leading hot spot formation which decrease the lifetime of PEM fuel cell. The most part of heat generated in the PEM fuel cell is removed by cooling fluid (forced convection) while the remainder is dissipated by natural convection, radiation and temperature difference between the inlet and outlet of reaction gases. The reaction rate and current density are related to temperature distribution on flow field, therefore it has to be kept uniform at the surface of active area to achieve a uniform current density. Designing a cooling system requires significant challenges in regard to the narrow range of operating temperatures. In this study, new cooling flow fields are numerically investigated in order to clarify the sufficient design for the heat removal. Numerical simulation is employed to investigate the coolant flow distribution, pressure drop and thermal behavior of different designs. The temperature contours represent the temperature uniformity for the assessed case. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.