Abstract
To point out the dominant factor of mass, heat and electric charge transfer phenomena in a single cell of PEFC for the promotion of power generation performance, the impact of gas channel pitch on in-plane distribution of mass concentration and temperature on reaction surface is investigated by simulation and experiment. Two-dimensional model of single cell which has the different gas channel pitch is simulated by CFD software. In the experiment using the separators which have different gas channel pitches, the data of power generation and in-plane distribution of temperature measured by thermograph are acquired to verify the simulation result. As a result, the in-plane distribution of gas, water and temperature on the reaction surface becomes more even with decreasing gas channel pitch under the condition investigated in this study, resulting that the power generation performance is promoted. With decreasing gas channel pitch, the temperature in observation area is dropped and total voltage is elevated. To enhance the power generation performance of PEFC under the conditions investigated in this study, the flow rate of supply gas of stoichiometric ratio of 1.00 and the gas channel pitch of 0.5 mm can be proposed.
