流道布置对风冷燃料电池性能影响的研究

Air-cooled fuel cells have great advantages in unmanned aerial vehicle application, but they still face problems such as low performance and complex water and heat management. In this study, effects of co-flow, counter-flow and cross-flow gas channel arrangements on the performance of air-cooled fuel cell are studied. The coupling mechanism between various physical quantities is also discussed. It is found that gas channel arrangements have a significant influence on the distribution of key physical quantities of air-cooled fuel cells. Affected by the uneven distribution of dissolved water content, the current density distribution in the cathode catalytic layer of cross-flow arrangement presents an isolated point distribution. Due to good thermal management of cross-flow gas channel arrangement, it can significantly improve the water content of membrane electrode, and then improve the cell performance. Under the operating voltage of 0.6 V, the current density of cross-flow gas channel arrangement is 20% higher than that of co-flow gas channel arrangement. In addition, it is also found that the reduction of ambient humidity will significantly reduce the performance of air-cooled fuel cells.