Steady state thermal simulation of high temperature PEM fuel cell with different flow field patterns

Three Dimensional models of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) comprising of flow field channels (FFP), Gas Diffusion Layers (GDL), Catalyst layers (CL) and membrane with an active area of 16 cm2 are modelled and simulated in this work. The four FFP’s used in the models are Parallel, Serpentine, Fractal and Pin. In this work, a Multiphysics simulation was conducted to determine the velocity distribution, pressure distribution, molar fraction and polarization curves of a high-temperature PEMFC (ht-PEMFC) based on phosphoric acid doped polymer membranes. Polarization plot of the four models was obtained for performance prediction against flooding. Pin and Fractal showed better performance, uniform pressure and velocity distribution compared to Serpentine and Parallel patterns.