Investigating the effect of the geometry of gas injection channels on the performance and dynamic behavior of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

The polymer membrane fuel cell, which works with hydrogen and air and has high efficiency and power density, low-temperature operation, and the ability to start quickly and without pollution, can be a good alternative to fossil fuels. The performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is highly dependent on the geometry, flow channel configuration, and size. In the current research, which is a numerical study, the performance of the polymer membrane fuel cell has been investigated by relying on the design of gas injection channels with different geometries in an unsteady state. The computational fluid dynamics method has been used to solve the governing equations. In this method, the finite volume method is used to discretize and solve the equations. Different geometries have been used for this research, including pseudo-spiral (model A), parallel (model B), and pin (model C), whose dimensions are the same as the spiral base model. Using dynamic simulation, it was observed that after about 70 seconds, the flow reached a stable state, and water production gradually increased. The results show that model C performs better than other models, and model B shows the worst performance.