Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology,Urmia, Iran
3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Islamic Azad University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
In this research, the impact of shoulder width and geometry of gas channel with different structures on proton exchange membrane (PEM) has been investigated using numerical method. 3D, non-isothermal was used with single straight channel geometrywhile maintaining the same boundary conditions and reaction area with addition of humidification for anode and cathode. Our study showed that an elliptical and circular channel cross-section gave higher current density as compared with conventional model. Moreover, the elliptical and circular channel configurations facilitated reactant transportation, caused more homogenous distribution of reactants andeffectively reduced mass transport loss, which lowered cathode overpotential of the cell which is the main cause of loss. Simulation of the three different channel geometries revealed that shoulder width has dominating effect on cell performance and leads to increase the value of Ohmicloss. The numerical model is validated against published experimental data and shows good agreement. Additional results with more detail are discussed and presented in the text.
Keywords
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