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Numerical Simulation and Manufacture of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell to Examine Mass and Charge Transport through Micro Porous Layers

Asadzade, Mostafa | 2015

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 48150 (08)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Mechanical Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Shamloo, Amir; Noori, Ali
  7. Abstract:
  8. Fuel cell is a power generator like internal combustion engines, but the first point is that internal combustion engines produce mechanical power while fuel cells produce electrical power. Secondly, internal combustion engines use hydrocarbon derivatives such as gas as fuel and their exhaust fumes are toxic gaseous, but fuel cells use hydrogen as fuel and their exhaust are only water in either vapor or liquid form. One of the most important issues in fuel cells is optimum design of micro channels of bipolar plates which is different regarding the type and application of fuel cells. Optimum designing of micro channels on bipolar plates plays a key role in fluid mass transport through micro porous layers and charge transfer through conductive media and water management of liquid water produced in micro channel and micro porous layers of fuel cell and heat management in fuel cell. Moreover, bipolar plates include seventy percent of fuel cell weight and sixty percent of fuel cell cost. This thesis addresses to investigation of different types of common flow pattern in bipolar plates by considering uniform pressure and velocity distribution, uniform distribution of reactants through all surface of catalyst layer so that there would be a uniform electron production by catalyst layer and the effect of these flow patterns on fuel cell performance. Besides, it is inspired from micro flow pattern in lung of human body and proposed a novel innovative bipolar plate which is not proposed up to now. Simulations and experimental Studies in this thesis show that lung shaped micro fluid flow pattern is the most optimum flow pattern to gain maximum power and energy density and best performance which is ever proposed in this field. In other word, the best polarization curve and power cure, which means the best performance, are obtained by using lung-shaped bipolar plate in a fuel cell. Finally, the fuel cell with proposed lung-shaped bipolar plate is manufactured and results of numerical simulation are validated by experimental results obtained from manufactured fuel cell. Also, it is concluded that mass production of lung-shaped bipolar plate could lead to a dramatic decrease in cost of this bipolar plate and eventually installing fuel cells as power generation unite could be affordable. For future studies it is recommended that researchers simulate stack of fuel cell with lung-shaped bipolar plate to examine the effect of the cells on each other
  9. Keywords:
  10. Manufacturers ; Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)Fuel Cell ; Numerical Simulation ; Construction ; Flow Field Channel ; Bipolar Plates ; Microporouse Membrane ; Fuel Cell Performance ; Lung Shaped Flow Pattern

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