Modelling of bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Fuel cell technology is one of the most economic and efficient ways to utilize hydrogen energy. Various types of fuel cells are present regarding the fuel type and amount of produced power. Among those, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are very promising. In this thesis work, a 2D proton exchange membrane fuel cell unit cell was modeled using Comsol Multiphysics software. Cell section was taken parallel to flow direction. Obstacles with various geometries were placed on the flow channel in order to force more amount of reactant species to react. By doing that, values of current and power densities that are close to ideal performance were tried to be approached and losses were tried to be minimized. As boundary conditions, several inlet velocities were applied. By doing so, reactant flow rate was aimed to be kept constant. Also, the effect of setting different pressure values at the outlet on performance was investigated. Consequently, it was observed that increasing inlet velocity and outlet pressure, feeding more reactant at the cathode compared to the anode and increasing the depth of the obstacles placed through the channel enhanced the fuel cell performance.