• Ovais Shaikh
• Vishram Sawant

Bipolar plates are one of the most important functional element of Polymer Electrolte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). They provide separate gas flow channels that provide supply of reactant gases on anode and cathode electrode sides of fuel cell and facilitate removal of products from the cathode side of fuel cell. A three dimensional single phase numerical model is proposed in this work based on Fluent PEMFC Module to study conventional flow field patterns of serpentine, interdigitated, mesh type and parallel flow fields used in bipolar plates. The model is validated by comparison with published experimental results. Based on the results obtained it was found interdigitated flow field gave the best performance followed by serpentine, parallel and pin type flow fields respectively. Hence, a new hybrid design using a combination of interdigitated and serpentine field was developed and simulated. In terms of power density, the hybrid flow field outperforms all the conventional flow fields. Hybrid field showed higher pressure drop in comparison to conventional flow fields thus resulting in high pumping power.

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), hybrid, Power density, Current density, Voltage.

"Performance Improvement Of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell By Bipolar Plate Modification Using Computational Fluid Dynamics", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.192-200, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906V28.pdf

"Performance Improvement Of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell By Bipolar Plate Modification Using Computational Fluid Dynamics", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp192-200, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906V28.pdf