Numerical Simulations of Coupled Flow and Heat Transfer Distributions in a Bipolar Plate of the PEM Electrolysis Cell

Authors

Jianhu Nie, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Jianfei Wu, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Steve Cohen, Distributed Energy Systems
Blake D. Carter, Distributed Energy Systems
Yitung Chen, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

8-10-2008

Publication Title

2008 Proceedings of the ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Conference

Publisher

ASME

Volume

1

First page number:

733

Last page number:

739

Abstract

Hydrogen is expected to play an important role as an energy carrier of the future. Hydrogen may be used as fuel in almost every application where fossil fuels are being used today, but without harmful emissions. However, hydrogen is not an energy source, and it does not occur in nature in its elemental or molecular form. Three-dimensional CFD modeling and experimental measurements of a simplified bipolar plate of the PEM electrolysis cell were performed. The computed pressure drop and temperature distribution agree very well with the measurements. The results show that the maximum temperature appears in the fluid channels and near the exit header section, but not in the exit port. The velocity distribution in the fluid channels is very non-uniform over the test plate. A minimum of the peak values of mainstream velocity component in the channels develops in the middle of the plate. The maximum of these peak values appears in the channel near the exit tube.

Keywords

Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulations; Electrolysis; Flow (Dynamics); Heat – Transmission; Heat transfer; Hydrogen as fuel; Proton exchange membranes; Proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Disciplines

Fluid Dynamics | Heat Transfer, Combustion | Mechanical Engineering | Oil, Gas, and Energy

Language

English

Comments

Conference Held: Jacksonville, Florida, USA, August 10–14, 2008

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

Repository Citation

Nie, J., Wu, J., Cohen, S., Carter, B. D., Chen, Y. (2008). Numerical Simulations of Coupled Flow and Heat Transfer Distributions in a Bipolar Plate of the PEM Electrolysis Cell. 2008 Proceedings of the ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Conference, 1 733-739. ASME.