Influence of gas channels and Gas Diffusion Layers configuration on the performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell

In this work, it is focused on the configurations of Gas Diffusion Layers and their influences on the performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell. At first, effect of prominent GDLs is studied. For this purpose, radius (R) of prominences is grown gradually. The optimal performance is obtained in the R=0.45. In addition, the inlet velocity of gas flow is surveyed. The results indicates that when the inlet velocity of gases is set about 0.2 m/s, the species diffusion is optimized. Also, the height of channels is investigated to find out the optimal channel height. It is found that the higher performance is achieved in channel height about h=1mm and R=0.45mm. The number of prominences on GDLs is investigated as the last parameter. The results demonstrates that by rising the number of prominences, output current density is grown. To validating numerical results, a set of experimental tests is carried out, which is seen favorable accordance between them. Moreover, the results of base model, has been compared with the result of published papers.