Analysis and Optimization of the Flow Path within the Protonic Ceramic Fuel Cell Stack

Abstract

With the development of human society, the demand for energy is increasing, and energy, an essential global necessity, is decreasing significantly and is in danger of being depleted. Fuel cell is the fourth power generation facility after hydroelectric, thermal and nuclear power. Fuel cell flow channel is an important part of fuel cell, which has the functions of transferring reaction gas, discharging products and excess unreacted gas, and balancing fuel cell temperature. This thesis focuses on the model design and optimization of a 10-layer flat-plate proton ceramic fuel cell (PCFC) reactor. First, we design a 10-layer flat-plate PCFC reactor model structure, then we simulate the reactor using Fluent, analyze the multi-field coupling operating characteristics inside the target reactor, optimize the reactor based on the results, and finally, we analyze and discuss the optimization results.