Effect of Gdl(+MPL) Compression on the PEM Fuel Cell Performance

Numerical simulations based on ANSYS Fluent software were carried out in order to investigate the effect of the clamping force and MPL addition on the fuel cell performance. The influence of the required gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression, during assembly process, onto fuel cell performance is in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ECS transactions 2016-01, Vol.75 (14), p.167-177
Main Authors: Carcadea, Elena, Varlam, Mihai, Ingham, Derek B., Patularu, Laurentiu G, Marinoiu, Adriana, Ion-Ebrasu, Daniela, Stefanescu, Ioan
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Numerical simulations based on ANSYS Fluent software were carried out in order to investigate the effect of the clamping force and MPL addition on the fuel cell performance. The influence of the required gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression, during assembly process, onto fuel cell performance is investigated by considering four cases (0%, 15.7 %, 31.5%, 47.4%) and the optimum compression ratio was obtained (31.5%). The study revealed that the GDL compression and intrusion into the channels affect the fuel cell performance and some aspects related to its influence on liquid saturation are presented. Then, our study analyzed the role of the micro porous layer (MPL) inserted between catalyst layer (CL) and GDL and it found that an improvement in the cell performance can be achieved since it can help to reduce the ohmic and the concentration polarization losses.
ISSN:1938-5862
1938-6737
DOI:10.1149/07514.0167ecst