TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of current distributions in proton exchange membrane fuel cells with interdigitated and serpentine flow fields
AU - Zhang, Guangsheng
AU - Guo, Liejin
AU - Ma, Bin
AU - Liu, Hongtan
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial supports from Chang Jiang Scholars Program of the Ministry of Education of China, NSFC Fund for Creative Research Groups (Grant No. 50521604) and NSFC Key Project (Grant No. 50536020) are gratefully appreciated. The authors thank Mr. Lizhong Ma for assistance in experiment and Dr. Hong Sun for useful discussions.
PY - 2009/3/1
Y1 - 2009/3/1
N2 - Current distributions in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with interdigitated and serpentine flow fields under various operating conditions are measured and compared. The measurement results show that current distributions in PEMFC with interdigitated flow fields are more uniform than those observed in PEMFC with serpentine flow fields at low reactant gas flow rates. Current distributions in PEMFC with interdigitated flow fields are rather uniform under any operating conditions, even with very low gas flow rates, dry gas feeding or over-humidification of reactant gases. Measurement results also show that current distributions for both interdigitated and serpentine flow fields are significantly affected by reactant gas humidification, but their characteristics are different under various humidification conditions, and the results show that interdigitated flow fields have stronger water removal capability than serpentine flow fields. The optimum reactant gas humidification temperature for interdigitated flow fields is higher than that for serpentine flow fields. The performance for interdigitated flow fields is better with over-humidification of reactant gases but it is lower when air is dry or insufficiently humidified than that for serpentine flow fields.
AB - Current distributions in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with interdigitated and serpentine flow fields under various operating conditions are measured and compared. The measurement results show that current distributions in PEMFC with interdigitated flow fields are more uniform than those observed in PEMFC with serpentine flow fields at low reactant gas flow rates. Current distributions in PEMFC with interdigitated flow fields are rather uniform under any operating conditions, even with very low gas flow rates, dry gas feeding or over-humidification of reactant gases. Measurement results also show that current distributions for both interdigitated and serpentine flow fields are significantly affected by reactant gas humidification, but their characteristics are different under various humidification conditions, and the results show that interdigitated flow fields have stronger water removal capability than serpentine flow fields. The optimum reactant gas humidification temperature for interdigitated flow fields is higher than that for serpentine flow fields. The performance for interdigitated flow fields is better with over-humidification of reactant gases but it is lower when air is dry or insufficiently humidified than that for serpentine flow fields.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2008.10.074
DO - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2008.10.074
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:59649118642
SN - 0378-7753
VL - 188
SP - 213
EP - 219
JO - Journal of Power Sources
JF - Journal of Power Sources
IS - 1
ER -