Effects of the Flow Field on the Performance of PEM Fuel Cells for Automotive Applications

PEM fuel cells are increasingly recognized as one of the future leading choices for powering vehicles, offering advantages over conventional battery systems. In this study, several types of flow fields and their influence on the performance of PEM fuel cells are investigated. The geometries of flow fields are inspired by commercial car models. The investigation was performed by using computational fluid dynamics for two different flow fields, after which polarization curves were constructed, which were compared together with polarization curve of the experimental model. This study is focused on the higher current densities, because the calculations were unstable for smaller current densities and mass flows of hydrogen on anode and oxygen on the cathode side in the flow field model with the zig-zag channel shape. From the results, it can be pointed out the pros and cons of the flow fields models, by comparing the obtained results a conclusion can be made about which model has overall better performance. The high cost and complexity of PEM fuel cells are one of the reasons why it doesn't have bigger commercial use in the automotive industry. The development of the geometry of the flow field can improve preforms and is a key step in commercialization. From the results, it is clear that for this flow fields, it is possible to reach current densities of 2.5 A/cm
²
. Performances of both models with different flow fields are similar according to the polarization curve, but a model with variable channels performs better.