Effect of Baffle Pattern Applied to Cathode Parallel Channel on PEMFC Performance

Abstract

Many efforts have been made to improve the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). One approach has been the enhancement of the mass transport property by applying various channel designs and modifying them. Of those channels, the parallel channel as applied in PEMFCs has a low pressure drop and poor mass transfer property. To improve the mass transfer, a baffle that forces the reactant flow into the gas diffusion layer (GDL) from the channel can be installed in the parallel channel. In this study, various parallel channels designed with different baffle patterns and the effect was assessed by the PEMFC performance. All the baffle patterns analyzed in this study improved the performance of the PEMFC. However, depending on the baffle pattern, the reactant transfer and the current density of the PEMFC were affected differently. The staggered baffle pattern showed the best PEMFC performance among the analyzed models; when the staggered pattern was located near the outlet and the gap between the staggered baffles was wide, the PEMFC performance was further improved and the pressure drop of the cathode flow field was also lower than with the other baffle patterns.