TY - JOUR ID - 26700 TI - Optimization of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell Performance by Geometrical Changes JO - Iranian Journal of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering JA - IJCCE LA - en SN - 1021-9986 AU - Ahmadi, Nima AU - Rezazadeh, Sajad AU - Asgharikia,, Mehdi AU - Shabahangnia, Ehsan AD - Mechanical Engineering Department, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, I.R. IRAN AD - Mechanical Engineering Department, Elm-o-Fan University of Technology, Urmia, I.R. IRAN AD - Mechanical Engineering Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, I.R. IRAN Y1 - 2017 PY - 2017 VL - 36 IS - 2 SP - 89 EP - 106 KW - PEMFC KW - Geometrical configuration KW - GDL prominence KW - CFD KW - current density DO - 10.30492/ijcce.2017.26700 N2 - Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics in house-code of a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) has been developed. The conservation equations are numerically solved using finite volume technique. One of the important goals of this research is the investigation of the variation of bipolar plates width effect on the fuel cell performance compared with the conventional model, which is highlighted in the results section with more details. Additionally, in the following, we investigated numerically and experimentally, the effect of posing the single prominence on the GDL layers in the middle of the gas channels. The result indicates the noticeable increase in current density at the same voltages, by comparing with the base model. Also, the optimum size of the prominences is obtained from experiments and simulations. To validate the numerical procedure and experimental tests, the results compared with available experimental data which show good agreement.   UR - https://ijcce.ac.ir/article_26700.html L1 - https://ijcce.ac.ir/article_26700_f56a16f1217dc22ea54ff98ea2fc1124.pdf ER -