Air distribution in PEMFC stack based on pressurevelocity coupling algorithm
1. Hubei Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Automotive Components, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan， Hubei 430070， China; 2. Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Automotive Components Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan， Hubei 430070， China
Abstract：Using the simplified fuel cell flow field and pressurevelocity coupling algorithm, the air distributions of Utype and Ztype fuel cell stack were investigated， and the effects of manifold width and fuel cell number on the air distribution were analyzed. The results show that the fluid distributions of Ztype is better than that of Utype because of the different outlet pressure distribution of the Ztype and the Utype. The uniformity of air distribution is greatly improved when the size of manifold is increase. The effect of increasing the manifold size is not obvious and can increase the cost when the air distribution difference is small. When the number of fuel cells is increased without changing the manifold size, the uniformity of the air distribution become worse, especially for the Utype. The air distribution is uniform when the number of fuel cells is 30 with the manifold width of 20 mm. The width of manifold should be increased to 30 mm for obtaining uniform air distribution when the number of fuel cells is 50.
