A novel intersectant flow field of metal bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

A novel intersectant flow field of metal bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was proposed. The bionics, fractal theory, and Murray's law were employed to design the novel flow field to decrease the drag force for the reaction medium and product. Computational fluid dynamics method was employed to investigate the performance of the novel flow field. The performance of traditional serpentine flow field was compared with the said one to calibrate the efficiency of the novel design of flow field. A test system of PEMFC was assembled to validate the reliability of the numerical simulation. The metal bipolar plates with the intersectant flow field were fabricated by electro discharge machining for the test. The surface treatment of the bipolar plate was conducted. Results showed that the novel flow field exhibited some advantages than the serpentine flow field in terms of the uniform distribution of reaction medium and exhausting of reaction product. The polarization curve also released that the novel flow field owned the higher power and current density. The experimental results certified the accuracy of numerical simulation and validated the advantage of the novel flow field in promoting the efficiency of PEMFC. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.