The vertical architecture of parallel flow field high temperatures proton exchange membrane fuel cell and its effects on the consumption of reactants and products

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the efficiency and, to minimize the size of hightemperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC), the consumption and distribution of reactants O2 and H2 in channels, as well as the products of a vertical architecture instead of the horizontal architecture. Moreover, we compare our numerical simulation results to experimental results of other researchers. In addition, we consider in this work a polybenzimidazole membrane doped with phosphoric acid, with four types of parallel flow field stack cells. A single cell consists of seven sub-parts, a double cell consists of thirteen sub-parts, a triple cell consists of nineteen sub-parts, and a four-cell consists of twenty-five sub-parts. 3D model, single phase, ideal gases, incompressible gases, impermeable membrane for the reactant gases and water, laminar flow, steady state, and isothermal model were taken into consideration in our study. For the reason to check the efficiency, we investigate the polarization curves (V-I) for this target. To check the distribution of reactants in the channels and the size decrease of the cells, we study hydrogen, oxygen, and water distribution patterns.