Development a new equation of polarization curve for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell at different channel geometry

The polarization curve of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is an important parameter that is used to investigate the performance of it that is expressed with the Nernst equation with the equation of losses the voltage such as activation loss, ohmic loss and concentration loss that they are a function of temperature of the cell and the current density. In this study a new correlation for polarization curve is obtained that it is a function of temperature, current density and a new parameter of cross-section geometry of channels. For this purpose three PEM fuel cells with different channels geometry of rectangular, elliptical and triangular have constructed. The active area of each cell is that its weight is 1300gr. The material of the gas diffusion layer is Carbon clothes, the membrane is nafion112 and the catalyst layer is a plane with 0.004 Platinum. Also a test bench designed and constructed for testing the cell and a series of experiments are carried out to investigate the influence of the geometry of the cell on performance of the cell. The results show that when the geometry of channel is rectangular the performance of the cell is better than the triangular and elliptical channel.

fuel cell, curve fitting, channel geometry, performance