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Effect of Baffle Pattern Applied to Cathode Parallel Channel on PEMFC Performance

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Abstract

Many efforts have been made to improve the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). One approach has been the enhancement of the mass transport property by applying various channel designs and modifying them. Of those channels, the parallel channel as applied in PEMFCs has a low pressure drop and poor mass transfer property. To improve the mass transfer, a baffle that forces the reactant flow into the gas diffusion layer (GDL) from the channel can be installed in the parallel channel. In this study, various parallel channels designed with different baffle patterns and the effect was assessed by the PEMFC performance. All the baffle patterns analyzed in this study improved the performance of the PEMFC. However, depending on the baffle pattern, the reactant transfer and the current density of the PEMFC were affected differently. The staggered baffle pattern showed the best PEMFC performance among the analyzed models; when the staggered pattern was located near the outlet and the gap between the staggered baffles was wide, the PEMFC performance was further improved and the pressure drop of the cathode flow field was also lower than with the other baffle patterns.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Young-Beom Kim, upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning(KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government(MOTIE)(20212020800090, Development and Demonstration of Energy-Efficiency Enhanced Technology for Temperature-Controlled Transportation and Logistics Center) and the Korean National Research Foundation (No.NRF-2021R1A2C2013203).

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  1. Department of Mechanical Convergence Engineering, Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seoul, 04763, Korea

    Jonghyun Son, Sukkee Um & Young-Beom Kim

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 440 Escondido Mall, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Jonghyun Son

  3. Institute of Nanoscience and Technology, Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, 222, Wangsimni- ro, Seoul, Korea

    Young-Beom Kim

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Son, J., Um, S. & Kim, YB. Effect of Baffle Pattern Applied to Cathode Parallel Channel on PEMFC Performance. Int. J. of Precis. Eng. and Manuf.-Green Tech. 11, 145–159 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-023-00534-3

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