PEM燃料电池迷宫流场双极板的电化学性能研究

双极板流场结构对质子交换膜PEM(proton exchange membrane)燃料电池的电化学性能至关重要。基于双极板的工作原理和有限元分析FEA(finite element analysis)理论,设计了一种用于PEM燃料电池的新型迷宫流场结构双极板,通过建立包括质子交换膜、催化层、气体扩散层、迷宫流场结构双极板和流道在内的完整PEM燃料电池的三维模型并进行数值分析,研究具有该迷宫流道结构双极板PEM燃料电池的电化学性能。此外,还制备了具有该迷宫结构的石墨双极板试样并进行电化学性能实验。研究结果表明,在保持PEM燃料电池其他参数一致时,具有迷宫流场双极板的PEM燃料电池有较大的功率密度,其最大值为520.283 mA/cm2,实验结果与模拟结果一致,验证了数值模拟的可靠性。

Study on Electrochemical Performance of PEM Fuel Cell with Maze Flow-field Bipolar Plate

The structure of a flow-field bipolar plate is critical to the electrochemical performance of proton exchange membrane(PEM) fuel cell. Based on the working principle of bipolar plates and the theory of finite element analysis(FEA), a bipolar plate with a novel type of maze flow-field structure was designed for FEM full cell. A three-dimensional numerical model of a complete PEM full cell including proton exchange membrane, catalytic layer, gas diffusion layer, maze flow-field structure bipolar plate and flow channel was established, and the electrochemical performance of PEM full cell with this maze flow-field bipolar plate was studied. In addition, a specimen of graphite bipolar plate with this structure was prepared to carry out experiments. Research results show that when all other parameters were kept constant, the PEM full cell with the maze flow-field bipolar plate possessed higher power density, and its maximum value was 520.283 mA/cm². Experimental results were in good agreement with simulation results, which verified the reliability of numerical simulations.