3D hybrid-wettability fin channel with dual enhancement of drainage and mass transfer to improve PEMFC performance

Taotao Zhao, Wenxuan Fan, Hao Cui, Mingxin Liu, Tongxi Zheng, Yang Luan, Xunkang Su, Chaozong Liu, Guolong Lu and Zhenning Liu

Energy, 2025, vol. 315, issue C

Abstract: The flow field of bipolar plate is crucial for improving the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In this work, a 3D hybrid-wettability fin channel (HFC) has been designed to enable active drainage and efficient mass transfer. Three key structural parameters of the fins, i.e. tilted angle, wedge width and fin spacing, have been optimized after examining their effects on drainage and mass transfer by simulation. The obtained optimal HFC improved the drainage distance, drainage rate, average oxygen mass fraction and net power density by 72.49 %, 536.94 %, 11.51 %, and 1.73 %, respectively, compared to those of conventional channel. Subsequently, the design of HFC was applied to parallel and serpentine flow fields to verify the benefits of active drainage and efficient mass transfer in cathode-visualized single PEMFC cells. The experimental results show that the peak power densities of parallel and serpentine flow fields with hybrid-wettability fins are 15.56 % and 7.94 % higher than those of corresponding ones without hybrid-wettability fins. The hybrid-wettability fins can also significantly improve the water management of flow fields. Therefore, the HFC design presented herein provides an excellent solution for designing novel flow fields to enhance both drainage and mass transfer performance in PEMFC.

Keywords: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC); Flow channel; Hybrid wettability; Active drainage; Mass transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225000209
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:315:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225000209

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.134378

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().