Design and Analysis of Spider Bionic Flow Field for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a portable and clean power generation device. The structural arrangement of the flow field has a significant influence on the delivery efficiency of PEMFC. In this article, a new bionic flow channel is designed based on the inspiration of a spider shape. The branch channel width and branch corner are studied as the focus, and its simulation is carried out by the method of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results show that when channel width/rib width and corner of the branch are 1.5 and 130°, respectively, it is the best numerical combination and the cell comprehensive performance is excellent. The final model using this numerical combination is compared with the traditional flow channel model to verify the advancement of this scheme.