Hydrodynamic characterisation and modelling of anode flow fields of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

This paper investigates the hydrodynamic behaviour of different anode flow field designs of liquid-fed Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs). Experiments as well as CFD simulations of the transient concentration distribution and of the residence time behaviour are analysed. Investigations at different flow rates show a negligible change of the flow pattern within a certain flow rate interval. Based on these results reduced models consisting of ideal reactor networks are developed. The studies highlight advantages and disadvantages of the various flow field designs with respect to hydrodynamics aspects. The CFD models as well as the reduced models can quantitatively reproduce the experimentally observed behaviour. Due to their small size, negligible computation times and modularity the reduced models are suitable for integration into dynamic DMFC models. With these, the influence of flow field design on DMFC behaviour can be studied. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.