Abstract
Air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cells (ACPEMFC’s) are gaining popularity as an alternative power source for their simplicity and quick startup. They’re commercialized for large number of applications in the power range up to a few kWs. One of the problems regarding these fuel cells is the thermal management of the electrochemical reaction resulting in overheating of the air-cooled fuel cell stack (ACS) at low current densities, often around 0.4 Acm-2. This study aims to solve the problem by placing turbulence grids before the cathode inlet. The purpose of the turbulence grids is to induce turbulences in the cathode channels and thereby induce a mixing effect and improve the heat transfer. A CFD model is build and assisted by experiments. The CFD results showed improvement of the mixing effect in the cathode channels and reduction of the channel wall temperature. The experiments resulted in 10.42% improved performance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | ECS Transactions |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue number | 13 |
| Pages (from-to) | 77-87 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| ISSN | 1938-6737 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |
| Event | ECS and SMEQ Joint International Meeting - The Moon Palace Resort, Cancun, Mexico Duration: 30 Sept 2018 → 4 Oct 2018 https://www.electrochem.org/aimes2018 |
Conference
| Conference | ECS and SMEQ Joint International Meeting |
|---|---|
| Location | The Moon Palace Resort |
| Country/Territory | Mexico |
| City | Cancun |
| Period | 30/09/2018 → 04/10/2018 |
| Internet address |