Design of innovative channel geometrical configuration and its effect on species distribution

computational fluid dynamics analysis was employed to investigate the species distribution of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) with different channel geometries at high operating current densities. 3D, non-isothermal was used with single straight channel geometry. Our study showed that an elliptical and circular channel cross-section gave higher current density compared with conventional model. However, the elliptical and circular channel configuration facilitated reactant transportation, cause to more homogenous reactants distribution and thus to a lower cathode overpotential of the cell which is the main losses is regard to it. Simulation of the three different channel revealed shoulder width has dominating effect on cells performance and lead to increase the value of Ohmic loss. The numerical model is validated against published experimental data with good agreement. Other result with more detail are discussed and presented in the text.