A biomimetic airfoil flow field to improve mass transfer and gas distribution of PEMFC

Ke Jiang, Wenxuan Fan, Taotao Zhao, Mingxin Liu, Xunkang Su, Yang Luan, Tongxi Zheng, Yihui Feng, Mi Wang, Guolong Lu and Zhenning Liu

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 247, issue C

Abstract: The design of bipolar plate flow fields significantly impacts reactant distribution and mass transfer capabilities in fuel cells, thereby influencing overall cell performance. Herein, biomimetic airfoil units (BAUs) are introduced into conventional parallel flow field (CPFF) as suspended baffles to enhance gas distribution uniformity and improve mass transfer, leveraging the guiding and low-resistance characteristics of airfoil structures. The effects of BAU height and rotation angle on overall performance have been systematically analyzed by numerical simulations to identify the optimal configuration for BAUs. It is found that the biomimetic airflow flow field (BAFF) significantly enhances gas distribution uniformity and mass transfer capabilities. Compared to CPFF, the proposed BAFF induces forced convection in the regions near BAUs, thus enhancing reactant diffusion. The optimized BAFF shows improvements of 10.3 % in net power density, 12.3 % in oxygen distribution uniformity, and 35.8 % in mass transfer capability over CPFF. By optimizing gas distribution and mass transfer capabilities, the airfoil-inspired design significantly enhances fuel cell performance, offering a new perspective and methodology for the development of high-performance fuel cells.

Keywords: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Flow field; Airfoil; Mass transfer; Gas distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:247:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125007098

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123047

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