PEFC STACK DEVELOPMENT: FLOW FIELD COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC STUDIES

The experience matured in the last years on Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCs) components evolution, optimisation and characterisation has given the opportunity to start a project addressed to the realisation of a small size PEFC stack. First goal of this work was the development of 100W stack prototype based on low Pt loading electrodes evolved at CNR-ITAE and working at low pressure. The first step in this direction was the analysis of different flow-field geometries from a fluid dynamic point of view. In this work results of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study are reported. 3D model of ribbed, serpentine and interdigitated flow-field was realised and analysed using a commercial available CFD software to predict gas velocity and pressure distribution inside the cell. The obtained results show that, for all studied geometry exists a secondary flow across the diffusive layer that overcomes the channel rib.