i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2

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Numerical investigation on the characteristics of

mass transport and performance of PEMFC with
baffle plates installed in the flow channel

Yan Yin, Xuefeng Wang, Xiang Shangguan, Junfeng Zhang, Yanzhou Qin*
State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

article info abstract

Article history: A 3D numerical model of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with the installa-
Received 23 December 2017 tion of baffle plates is developed. The majority of the conservation equations and physical
Received in revised form parameters are implemented through the user defined functions (UDFs) in the FLUENT
21 February 2018 software. The characteristics of mass transport and performance of PEMFC are investi-
Accepted 4 March 2018 gated. The results reveal that the baffle plate can enhance the mass transport efficiency
Available online 29 March 2018 and the performance of PEMFC. The baffle plate installed in the PEMFC flow channel in-
creases the local gas velocity, which can promote the reactant gas transport and the liquid
Keywords: water removal in the porous electrode. As a result, the reactant gas concentration is larger
PEMFC in the porous electrode, which enhances the fuel cell performance for decreasing the over-
Flow channel potential of concentration. The fuel cell output power increases with the blockage ratio of
Baffle plate the baffle plate. Considering the extra pumping power resulted from pressure loss caused
Pressure loss by the baffle plate, the fuel cell with the blockage ratio of 0.8 is found to perform best in
Cell performance terms of the fuel cell net power generation. The fuel cell performance increases first with
the baffle plate number, due to the better reactant distribution and water management, but
decreases when the baffle plate number is too large, due to the excessive blockage for the
reactant gas transport to the channel downstream. The PEMFC investigated with 5 baffle
plates in the channel is found to be optimal. A channel design to achieve gradually
increasing blockage ratios is also proposed, which exhibits better cell performance than the
design with even blockage ratios.
© 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

with rapid start-up feature and thus becomes a desirable op-

Introduction
With the depletion of fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect
growing, more and more researchers focus on fuel cell for its
sustainable hydrogen energy utilization, high energy conver-
sion efficiency and nearly zero emission. The proton exchange
membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) can work at a low temperature
tion of power output device for automobiles.
A normal PEMFC consists of bipolar plates (BPs), gas
diffusion layers (GDLs), catalyst layers (CLs), and proton ex-
change membrane (PEM). The bipolar plate is an important
component of PEMFC which supplies reactants to the porous
electrode, collects current and removes reaction products.
Design of the flow channel carved in the bipolar plate is one of

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: qinyanzhou@tju.edu.cn (Y. Qin).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.03.037
0360-3199/© 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2 8049

Nomenclature n kinetic viscosity (m2 s
1)

x stoichiometry ratio
a water activity
r density (kg m
3)
A cell geometric area (m2)
s surface tension (N m
1)
C molar concentration (mol m
3)
t shear stress (Pa)
CP specific heat (J kg
1 K
1)
4 potential (V) or volume fraction
d pore diameter (m)
u volume fraction of ionomer in catalyst layer
D mass diffusivity (m2 s
1)
j dimensionless constant
E Young's modulus (Pa)
EW equivalent weight of membrane (kg kmol
1) Subscripts
f interfacial drag coefficient a anode
F Faraday's constant (C mol
1) BP bipolar plate
G shear elastic modulus (Pa) c cathode
H latent heat, (J kg
1), surrounding heat transfer cell fuel cell
coefficient (W m
2 K
1) CL catalyst layer
I current density (A cm
2) Cond condensation
jo volumetric exchange current density (A m
3) d dissolved water
k thermal conductivity (W m
1 K
1) eff effective
K permeability (m2) e, ele electronic
m_ mass flow rate (kg s
1) EOD electro-osmotic drag
M molecular weight (kg kmol
1) equil equilibrium
nd electro-osmotic drag coefficient (H2O per Hþ) evap evaporation
P pressure (Pa) fl fluid phase
Q_ heat transfer rate (W) g gas phase
R universal gas constant (J mol
1 K
1) GDL gas diffusion layer
RH relative humidity (%) H2 hydrogen
s volume fraction i, j the i th and j th components
S source terms or entropy (J mol
1 K
1) in inlet
T temperature (K) ion ionic
T0 volume averaged cell temperature (K) l liquid water
!
u velocity (m s
1) m mass (for source term)
V electrical potential (V) men membrane
X mole fraction O2 oxygen
Y mass fraction out outlet
ref reference state
Greek Letters
rev reversible
a transfer coefficient
sat saturation
g water phase change rate (s
1)
sl solid phase
d thickness (m)
surr surroundings
ε porosity or strain tensor
T energy (for source term)
z water transfer rate (s
1)
u momentum (for source term)
h over potential (V)
v water vapor
q contact angle ( )
d-v dissolved water to vapor
k electrical conductivity (S m
1)
v-l vapor to water liquid (vice versa)
l water content in ionomer or lame constant
m Poisson ratio or dynamic viscosity (kg m
1 s
1)

the main tasks involving fuel cell performance improvement.
A reasonable design of the flow channel influences compre-
hensively the reactant gas transport, water management and
fuel cell performance.
Many researchers have investigated the modification of
fuel cell flow channel based on the traditional channel types.
Belchor et al. [1] proposed a parallel serpentine-baffle flow
field design which obtained better fuel cell performance at a
small current density, due to the water retaining effect of the
design. Cooper et al. [2] carried out the experimental optimi-
zation of parallel and interdigitated PEMFC channels, and
found that the channel/land width was the most important
parameter for the parallel flow fields, while the stoichiometry
was the key parameter for the interdigitated flow fields.
Imbrioscia et al. [3] investigated the gas flow behaviors in
response to the width, depth and shape of the flow channel
based on a 3D fuel cell model using the Open FOAM software
and revealed that a correct position of obstruction nearby the
gas inlet would make sense to the flow management. Lim-
jeerajarus et al. [4] studied the effect of various flow field de-
signs and the number of channels on the PEMFC performance
using the FLUENT software. They found that less number of
channels provided better reactant uniformity and cell per-
formance for a small-size PEMFC; and the influence of the
8050 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2

channel geometry was greater as the number of channels was

Sv
l þ Sd
v MH2 O

Sv
l þ Sd
v MH2 O

increased. Lim et al. [5] analyzed a modified parallel flow field
using staged channel widths, showing that the modified flow

Sv
field exhibited more even reactant gas and pressure distribu-

Sv
l

Sv
l
tions. Hossain et al. [6] further designed two parallel channel
configurations by reducing the header width based on Z-type

0
and U-type channels to achieve the flow uniformity. Jackson
et al. [7] used a discrete method to assess flow maldistribution

2FMH2

4FMO2
and deduced a mathematical relationship to optimize the flow

ja
distribution, based on a Z-type channel configuration. Cooper

jc
SH2 ¼

Si

SO 2 ¼

et al. [8] experimentally investigated the influence of the
aspect ratio of an interdigitated flow channel on the fuel cell

0
0
0

0
performance. There are also researches concerning about the
tapered flow channel. Fontana et al. [9] studied the liquid

þ Spc
water transport behaviors inside a tapered flow channel,
based on a 2D dynamic and isothermal model using the vol-

kV4ion k2 kion
eff
ume of fluid (VOF) method. Mancusi et al. [10] studied the in-

ja jhact j þ kV4e k2 ke þ kV4ion k2 kion þ Spc

fluence of the channel taper angle on liquid water transport
and fuel cell performance, based on a 3D model. Xu et al. [11]

eff

þ
investigated the influence of the channel aspect ratio and base

eff
kV4e k2 ke
angle on the flow resistance characteristics and distributions

ST
in a trapezoidal like channel, carved in a metal bipolar plate.

eff
Mahmoudimehr et al. [12] numerically investigated the design

2F þ jc jhact j þ

þ Spc
kV4c k2 ke þ Spc
of the cathode channel cross sectional area. The results

kV4ion k2 kion
showed that the optimal design was related to the PEMFC

eff
eff

eff
kV4c k2 ke
operating conditions and the relative humidity of inlet gas had

jc TDS
the greatest influence on the optimal design. Wang et al. [13]

0
proposed a novel parallel cathode flow design with a sub-
channel to enhance the reactant gas transport and the water
removal in PEMFC. Qin et al. [14] inserted a small hydrophilic
Sion

jc
ja
0
0
0

0
needle into the straight channel to facilitate liquid water
removal from the GDL surface by the needle capillary force. Li
et al. [15] numerical investigated the fuel cell performance and

ja
Se

transport characteristics of PEMFC with metal foams as the

jc
0
0
0

0
flow distributor, and found that the fuel cell performance was
improved, and the species, temperature and current density

F kion fion


were more uniformly distributed in the rib regions compared

F kion fion

nd eff

with the traditional designs. Wilberforce et al. [16] reviewed

nd eff

the modification of the common existing flow channel de-

Table 1 e Source terms for the conservation equations [32].

Sd
v þ V$
Sd

Sd
v þ V$

signs. They mainly focused on the pressure drop of the

modified channels and pointed out that the modified parallel
flow channel had the lowest pressure drop, compared with
2F

other modified designs.

jc
0
0
0

The studies mentioned above show that the design of the

channel carved in the bipolar plate is fundamental to PEMFC
Sv
l
Sv
l

Sv
l
Sl

operation. Recently, the application of baffle plates or blocks

0
0

installed in the channel was proposed, showing it an effective

Kg u g

Kg u g

Kg u g
mg !

mg !

mg !
Su

0
0

0
SH 2 þ Sv

SO 2 þ Sv
Sm

Sv
Sv
0

0
Cathode CL

Membrane
Anode CL
Channel
GDL
BP

Fig. 1 e Computational domain in the present study.

 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2 8051

enhancement of fuel cell performance based on a 2D fuel cell

Table 2 e Transport properties related with temperature
model, and declared that the liquid water should be consid-
and pressure [31,32].
ered in the numerical simulation at high current density.
Parameters Correlations
Perng et al. [19] investigated the effect of rectangular block on
(T in K and P in Pa)
the fuel cell performance. The results showed that the
Hydrogen dynamic viscosity mH2 ¼ 3:205  rectangular block improved the fuel cell performance.
ðkg m
1 s
1 Þ 10
3 ðT=293:85Þ1:5 ðT þ 72Þ
1:0 Furthermore, they also explored how the gap size and block
Oxygen dynamic viscosity mO2 ¼ 8:46 
width affected the fuel cell performance [20]. Ku et al. [21]
ðkg m
1 s
1 Þ 10
3 ðT=292:25Þ1:5 ðT þ 127Þ
1:0
investigated the influence of operational factors on PEMFC
Hydrogen diffusivity ðm2 s
1 Þ DH2 ¼ 1:055 
performance with a modified channel, and the result indi-
10
4 ðT=333:15Þ1:5 ð101325=PÞ
cated that the fuel cell performance was enhanced with the
2
1
Oxygen diffusivity ðm s Þ DO2 ¼ 2:652 
number of blocks. Heidary et al. [22] investigated the block
10
4 ðT=333:15Þ1:5 ð101325=PÞ
Water vapor dynamic viscosity mv ¼ 7:512 
number effect on the fuel cell performance, showing that the
ðkg m
1 s
1 Þ 10
3 ðT=291:15Þ1:5 ðT þ 120Þ
1:0
block number could be optimized. They also reported that the
Liquid water dynamic viscosity ml ¼ 2:414  10
5  10247:8=ðT
140Þ staggered blockages in parallel flow channels performed bet-
ðkg m
1 s
1 Þ ter than the in-line arrangement [23]. Perng et al. [24] inves-
Water vapor diffusivity in Dav ¼ 1:055  tigated the flow channel with trapezoid baffle plates and
anode ðm2 s
1 Þ 10
4 ðT=333:15Þ1:5 ð101325=PÞ found that the fuel cell performed best when the angle of
Water vapor diffusivity in Dcv ¼ 1:055  trapezoid baffle plate was 60 . Ashorynejad et al. [25] explored
cathode ðm2 s
1 Þ 10
4 ðT=333:15Þ1:5 ð101325=PÞ how the amplitude and frequency of a wave-like channel
Effective mass diffusivity Di
eff
¼ Di ε1:5 ð1
4l Þ1:5 undersurface influenced the fuel cell performance, based on a
ð m2 s
1 Þ 2D half fuel cell model. Li et al. [26] further studied a wave-like
serpentine channel, both in numerical and experimental.
They reported that the wave-like channel design not only
way to improve the fuel cell performance. Soong et al. [17] enabled a lower pressure drop, but also leaded to a higher cell
proposed a novel configuration of partially blocked channel performance compared with the traditional channel. Other
with baffle plates transversely inserted in the channel. They types of flow channels have also been reported. Wang et al.
mainly explored the effects of the gap ratio, the porosity of [27] designed a novel biometric flow slab to enhance the fuel
GDL and the Reynolds number on the mass transport. Liu et al. cell performance and studied its effect on the pressure drop
[18] studied the effect of baffle plate number on the and flow uniformity. Ruan et al. [28] applied a biomimetic flow

Table 3 e Correlations related with the water phase change and dissolved water transport [32,33,35,36].
Parameters Correlations
Interface drag coefficient Kl mg
f ¼ Kg ml

Liquid phase diffusivity ðm2 s
1 Þ Dl ¼
Kmll dPc

d4l
8  0:5
Capillary pressure (Pa) >
> ε
> ½1:417ð1
4l Þ
2:12ð1
4l Þ2 þ 1:26ð1
4l Þ3 ; qc < 90
< s cos q K0
>
Pc ¼  0:5
>
> ε
>
>
: s cos q ½1:4174l
2:1242l þ 1:2643l ; qc > 90
K0
Surface tension (N m
1) s ¼
0:0001676T þ 0:1218; 273:15  T  373:15
Pressure of liquid water Pl ¼ Pg
Pc
Liquid phase velocity (m s
1) !
u ¼
Kl VP
l ml l
8
Vapor and liquid water ðkg m
3 s
1 Þ > Shcond Dv ðPv
Psat Þ
>
< Apore εð1
4l Þ ; Pv > Psat
d RT
Sv
l ¼
>
: Apore Shevap Dv ε4 ðPv
Psat Þ ; Pv < Psat
>
l
d RT
r
Vapor and dissolved water ðkg m
3 s
1 Þ Sd
v ¼ zd
v EW ðld
lequil Þð1
4l Þ
Saturation pressure (Pa) log10 Psat ¼
2:1794 þ 0:02953ðT
273:15Þ
9:183  10
5 ðT
273:15Þ2 þ
1:4454  10
7 ðT
273:15Þ3
Dissolved water content ld ¼ rEW C H2 o
8
mem
 
Diffusivity of dissolved water ðm2 s
1 Þ >
>
7
2346
< 3:1  10 ld ½expð0:28ld Þ
1exp
>
T
， 0 < ld < 3
Dd ¼  
>
>
2346
>
: 4:17  10
8 ld ½161expð
ld Þ þ 1exp ， 3  ld < 17
T
 2 3
Equilibrium dissolved water content 0:043 þ 17:81a
39:85a þ 36:0a ; 0  a  1
lequil ¼
14:0 þ 14ða
1Þ; 1 < a  3
Water activity Xvp Pg
a ¼ Psat þ 24l
Electro-osmic drag coefficient nd ¼ 2:5ld =22
8052 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2

Table 4 e Correlations related with electronic and ionic transport.

Parameters Correlations
  
Ionic conductivity [35]
kion ¼ ð0:5139ld
0:326Þexp 1268 303:15
1

T1

Effective Ionic conductivity [36] eff

kion ¼ u1:5 kion
Effective electronic conductivity [36] eff
kele ¼ ð1
ε
uÞ1:5 kele
Transfer coefficient aa ¼ ac ¼ 0:5
  
Reference exchange current density in anode (A m
3) ref
j0;a ¼ 109 exp
1400 T1
353:15
1

  
Reference exchange current density in cathode (A m
3) ref
j0;c ¼ 104 exp
7900 T1
353:15
1

Reference hydrogen, oxygen concentrations (mol m
3) ref ref

CH2 ¼ CO2 ¼ 40:0
8 !0:5 
Butler-Volmer equation >    
>
> ref CH2 2Faa 2Fac
>
> j ¼ ð1
4 Þj exp hact
exp
hact
>
<
a l 0;a
CH2ref RT RT
> !    
>
> ref CO2 4Faa 4Fac
>
>
: jc ¼ ð1
4l Þj0;c
> ref

exp
RT
hact
exp

RT
hact
C
O2

channel based on the Murray's Law to improve the fuel cell

performance. Kahraman et al. [29] imitated the structure of
tree leaves and added the cylindrical obstacles in the channel
to improve the fuel cell performance. Monsaf et al. [30]
analyzed a spiral flow field design, and investigated the ef-
fects of the channel width, the number of turns and the flow
direction of the spiral channel.
In PEMFC operation, the liquid water is crucial to the mass
transport and cell performance [18]. However, the liquid water
is hardly considered in the previous numerical simulations of
applying the baffle plate in the flow channel, due to the
complication of liquid water transport mechanisms. More-
over, the introduction of the baffle plate leads to an additional
pumping power for the reactant gas supply in the flow chan-
nel, and the pumping power should also be taken into
consideration when discussing the baffle plate effect on the
fuel cell performance [24], which has almost been neglected in
the previous studies. In this study, a two-phase, 3D PEMFC
model with baffle plates installed in the channel is developed,
incorporating the liquid water transport in the porous elec-
trode and membrane. The distributions of velocity, mass
concentration and pressure are obtained and analyzed using
the PEMFC model. The effects of the blockage ratio and baffle
plate number on the fuel cell performance are investigated,
considering the pumping power for gas supply. A novel
channel design achieving more even reactant gas distribution
and better fuel cell performance is also discussed.
Model formulation
Computational domain and assumptions
Fig. 1 shows the computational domain of the present study,
which is a 3D PEMFC unit consisting of the straight flow
channels, the bipolar plates, the GDLs, the CLs (on both anode
and cathode) and the membrane. The fuel cell dimensions are
100 mm  3.4708 mm  2.0 mm along the x, y and z directions,
respectively. The cross section of the flow channel is
1 mm  1 mm. The thickness of the BP is 0.5 mm. The thick-
nesses of the GDL, CL and membrane are 0.2 mm, 0.01 mm and
0.0508 mm [31], respectively. The GDL considered in the model
is TORAY carbon paper TGP-H-060 and the membrane is
Nafion 112. A baffle plate is applied in the middle of the
cathode flow channel. The blockage ratio is defined as the
height of the baffle plate divided by the height of the channel,
which measures the blocking extent of the baffle plate to the
gas transport in the channel.
The following assumptions are made to simplify the
PEMFC model:

Fig. 3 e Comparison between the present numerical results

Fig. 2 e Meshes for the simulation. and experiment data given in Ref. [37].
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2 8053

4. The membrane is assumed to be impermeable to all the gas

Table 5 e Operating conditions and material or physical
species;
properties of PEMFC [31,37].
5. Both the GDL and CL are assumed to be homogeneous and
Parameters Values Units
isotropic;
Anode inlet temperature 343.15 K 6. The PEMFC model is applied in a single channel fuel cell;
Cathode inlet temperature 343.15 K 7. The electrochemical reactions in the CL are solved by the
Anode inlet relative humidity 100% e
Butler-Volmer equation.
Cathode inlet relative humidity 100% e
Stoichiometric flow rate at the anode 1.5 e Conservation equations
Stoichiometric flow rate at the cathode 3.0 e
Faraday constant 96487 C mol
1
The conservation equations for the mass, momentum and gas
Universal gas constant 8.314 J mol
1 K
1
Porosity of gas diffusion layer 0.6 e species are developed for the flow in the channel, GDL and CL
Porosity of catalyst layer 0.3 e regions. The dissolved water and ionic charge are considered
Intrinsic permeability of GDL 1.0e-12 m
2 for the CL and membrane regions. The energy conservation is
Intrinsic permeability of CL 1.0e-13 m
2 considered for the whole computational domain of the fuel
Equivalent weight of dry membrane 1100 kg kmol
1 cell. The conservation of electronic charge is applied to the BP,
GDL and CL regions. And all of these conservation equations
are presented below with the source terms provided in
1. The PEMFC is assumed operating at a steady state; Table 1.
2. The gas mixture is assumed to be ideal gas and the flow is
The mass conservation equation of gas mixture:
laminar due to the low Reynolds number;


3 The gravity effect is neglected; V$ rg !
u g ¼ Sm (1)

Fig. 4 e Velocity distribution in the middle x-y plane (z ¼ 0.001 m) of the conventional channel (a) and the channel with a
baffle plate (b) in the cathode of PEMFC.

Fig. 5 e O2 concentration in the middle x-y plane (z ¼ 0.001 m) of the conventional channel (a) and the channel with a baffle
plate (b) in the cathode of PEMFC.

Fig. 6 e O2 concentration in the x-z plane (y ¼ 0.00155 m) of the GDL for the conventional channel (a) and the channel with a
baffle plate (b) in the cathode of PEMFC.
8054 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2

Fig. 7 e Liquid water volume fraction in the x-z plane (y ¼ 0.00155 m) of the GDL for the channel with a baffle plate: (a) along
the plane middle line (z ¼ 0.001 m); (b) along the whole plane.

The momentum conservation equation of gas mixture:

    !  ! !!   ! 
rg !u g!
T
ug ug ug 2 ug
V$ ¼
VP g þ m g V$ V þ V
mg V V$ þ Su (2)
ε2 ð1
4l Þ2
εð1
4l Þ εð1
4l Þ 3 εð1
4l Þ

Fig. 8 e Effect of the blockage ratio on the velocity distribution in the middle x-y plane (z ¼ 0.001 m) of the channel: (a)
Blockage ratio ¼ 0; (b) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.4; (c) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.6; (d) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.8; (e) Blockage ratio ¼ 1.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2 8055

Fig. 9 e Effect of the blockage ratio on the O2 concentration in the middle x-y plane (z ¼ 0.001 m) of the channel: (a) Blockage
ratio ¼ 0; (b) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.4; (c) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.6; (d) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.8; (e) Blockage ratio ¼ 1.

Gas species (i represents hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and Electronic charge:

water vapor, respectively):
0 ¼ V$ keff
e V4e þ Se (6)



V$ rg !
eff
u g Yi ¼ V$ rg Di VYi þ Si (3) eff
where is the effective electronic conductivity of the
ke
material.
Liquid water:
Ionic charge:


V$ f rg !
u g ¼ V$ðrl Dl V4l Þ þ Sl (4)

eff

0 ¼ V$ kion V4ion þ Sion (7)
Dissolved water (water in membrane): eff
where kion is the effective ion conductivity of the material.
r

eff
0 ¼ mem V$ Dd Vld þ Sd (5) Energy conservation equation:
EW



eff ! eff
where rmem is the density of the membrane in dry condition, V$ rCp fl
uT ¼ V$ kfl;sl VT þ ST (8)
eff
EW is the equivalent weight of membrane, Dd is the effective
The parameters related to the transportation properties are
diffusion rate of the dissolved water, and ld is the dissolved
given as follow. In this model, all the gases are regarded as
water content.
ideal gas, so the gas mixture density can be expressed as [33]:

Fig. 10 e Effect of the blockage ratio on the O2 concentration in the x-z plane (y ¼ 0.00155 m) of the GDL: (a) Blockage
ratio ¼ 0; (b) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.4; (c) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.6; (d) Blockage ratio ¼ 0.8; (e) Blockage ratio ¼ 1.
8056 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2

!
1
X Yi
rg ¼ Pg RT (9)
i
Mi

The dynamic viscosity of gas mixture can be expressed as

[34]:

X Xi mi
mg ¼ P (10)
i j Xi jij

where

. 0:5
0:25 0:5
1 þ mi Mi
mj Mj
jij ¼ h
i0:5 (11)
8 1 þ Mi M
j

In the meanwhile, we also take the change of transport

properties related to temperature and pressure into consid-
eration, and these equations are presented in Table 2. The
permeability of GDL is related with the porosity and diameter
of the fibers forming the GDL and the volume fraction of liquid
water. The permeability of gas and liquid in porous electrode
(GDL and CL) can be expressed below, respectively:

Kg ¼ K0 ð1
4l Þ4:0 (12)

Kl ¼ K0 44:0
l (13)

If the porous GDL and CL are full of liquid water, the

Fig. 11 e Effect of the blockage ratio on the current density
distribution along the channel length direction (a) and the
fuel cell average current density (b).
permeability of gas deduced from the equation will become
zero due to the blocking effect of liquid water. The correlations
related with water phase change and dissolved water trans-
port are given in Table 3. The correlations related with elec-
tronic and ionic transport are summarized in Table 4.
Boundary conditions

The mass flow rate is set for the inlet boundary condition of
both anode and cathode channels. The mass flow rates of the
anode and cathode are calculated as:

rag xa Iref A rcg xc Iref A

m_ a ¼ ; m_ c ¼ (14)
2FCH2 4FCO2

where A is the active area of fuel cell. F is Faraday's constant. x

Fig. 12 e Effect of the blockage ratio on the pressure drop,
gross power, pumping power and net power of the fuel cell
for the fuel cell output voltage of 0.52 V.
is the stoichiometry ratio. Iref is the reference current density.
Air is supplied to the cathode channel. The species concen-
trations of O2 and H2 in the cathode and anode inlets can be
determined, respectively, as:



0:21 Pcg
RHc Psat Pag
RHa Psat
CO2 ¼ ; CH2 ¼ (15)
RT0 RT0
where T0 is the inlet gas temperature, P is the pressure, and RH
is the inlet relative humidity. The boundary condition of
channel outlet is set to pressure outlet in both anode and
cathode. The inlet gas temperature is considered to be con-
stant, equal to the operating temperature. The temperature of
the surrounding walls is set to be the operating temperature.
At the top and bottom surfaces of the anode and cathode, the
electronic potentials can be defined as follows:
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2 8057

Fig. 13 e Effect of the baffle plate number on the velocity distribution in the middle x-y plane (z ¼ 0.001 m) of the channel: (a)
Baffle plate number ¼ 0; (b) Baffle plate number ¼ 1; (c) Baffle plate number ¼ 3; (d) Baffle plate number ¼ 5; (e) Baffle plate
number ¼ 7.

Numerical procedures

4a;end ¼ Vrev
Vcell ¼ htotal
e (16)
4c;end
e ¼0 The governing equations are implemented in the FLUENT
software. The Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked
where htotal is the total voltage loss, and Vrev and Vcell are the
Equations (SIMPLE) is used for the pressure-velocity coupling.
reversible and operating cell voltages, respectively. And the
The standard method is chosen for the pressure discretiza-
reversible cell voltage can be solved by the following equation:
tion. The majority of the equations and physical parameters
  are implemented through the user-defined functions (UDFs).
RT0 1
Vrev ¼ 1:229
0:9  10
3 ðT0
298:15Þ þ lnPin
H2 þ lnPin
O2 The grid independence is studied, and structured grids are
2F 2
(17) employed to mesh the computational domain which is given
in Fig. 2. Strict convergence criteria with the residual of 10
8

Fig. 14 e Effect of the baffle plate number on the O2 concentration in the middle x-y plane (z ¼ 0.001 m) of the channel: (a)
Baffle plate number ¼ 0; (b) Baffle plate number ¼ 1; (c) Baffle plate number ¼ 3; (d) Baffle plate number ¼ 5; (e) Baffle plate
number ¼ 7.
8058 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2
Fig. 15 e Effect of the baffle plate number on the O2 concentration in the x-z plane (y ¼ 0.00155 m) of the GDL: (a) Baffle plate
number ¼ 0; (b) Baffle plate number ¼ 1; (c) Baffle plate number ¼ 3; (d) Baffle plate number ¼ 5; (e) Baffle plate number ¼ 7.
are used for all variables. To achieve accurate results, the
calculation is executed in double precision and the algebraic
multigrid (AMG) method is used to improve the convergence
process. The second-order upwind discretization scheme is
selected as a numerical scheme.
Model validation
Fig. 3 depicts the PEMFC performance comparison between
the numerical results and the experiment data in Ref. [37]. All
the parameters used in the numerical results are the same
with the experiment conditions in Ref. [37]. It can be seen that
the simulation results agree well with the experiment data.
Results and discussion
Mass transport comparisons
All the material and operating parameters are given in Table 5.
The fuel cell voltage is chosen as 0.52 V for all the cases
investigated. Fig. 4 shows the velocity distribution in the
conventional channel and the channel with a baffle plate. It is
seen that the flow of the main stream is slow and steady in the
conventional channel; whereas it is squeezed on the top of the
baffle plate due to the blocking effect in the channel, the local
gas velocity becomes high, and the gas is forced to run into the
porous electrode. Because of the large velocity, the gas
transport behavior in the porous electrode changes to con-
vection rather than the conventional diffusion around the
baffle plate, enhancing the gas transport efficiency in the
electrode.
Fig. 5 shows the O2 concentration in the channels. The O2
concentration decreases in both cases along the channel due
to the consumption of O2. The O2 concentration is larger in the
channel with a baffle plate, compared with the conventional
channel, especially in the location where the baffle plate lies
in. This is more clearly shown in Fig. 6 for the O2 concentration
in the GDL (x-z plane). An O2 enrichment region forms in the
GDL over the baffle plate due to the convection effect. The
baffle plate also helps remove the produced liquid water in the
electrode. As shown in Fig. 7, the amount of liquid water in the
GDL behind the baffle plate has a sudden decrease due to the
gas convection effect, and the liquid water volume fraction in
the downstream is much lower than the upstream of the
channel. The liquid water removal in turn promotes the gas
transport into the GDL, resulting in the O2 enrichment region
shown in Fig. 6.
Effect of the blockage ratio
The blockage ratio (or the height of baffle plate) may have
significant influence on the mass transport and fuel cell per-
formance. The blockage ratios investigated are selected as 0,
0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0, respectively.
Fig. 8 shows how the blockage ratio of baffle plate in-
fluences the velocity distribution in the channel. A similar
transport feature can be noticed from the results: the gas ve-
locity reaches the maximum value in the zone between the
baffle plate and GDL, and the maximum gas velocity increases
with the blockage ratio, except for the blockage ratio of 1.0 as
the channel is fully blocked by the baffle plate, for which the
gas velocity in the channel becomes small due to the blocking
effect. The velocity vectors given in Fig. 8 indicate that more
reactant gas flows into the porous electrode as the blockage
ratio increases. Fig. 9 shows the O2 concentration in the
channel along x-y plane. It is clearly seen that the O2 con-
centration increases in the channel with the blockage ratio.
The O2 enrichment region can all be observed in the GDL for
the channel with a baffle plate, and O2 enrichment along x-z
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2 8059

plane is more significant as the blockage ratio increases, as
shown in Fig. 10. It is demonstrated that higher O2 concen-
tration reduces the over-potential of concentration and ben-
efits the fuel cell performance. The baffle plate can also
promote the reactant transport to the rib area between the
adjacent channels, especially for the blockage ratio of 0.8 and
1.0 shown in Fig. 10 (d) and (e), in which higher O2 concen-
tration is clearly observed in the rib area. This can make better
use of the active area of PEMFC and enable further improve-
ment of the fuel cell performance.
Fig. 11 shows the current density for various blockage ra-
tios. As shown in Fig. 11 (a), the current density decreases
almost linearly from the channel inlet to the channel outlet
due to the reactant consumption for the conventional chan-
nel. However, the current density has a spike around the baffle
plate due to the O2 enrichment discussed earlier for the
channel with a baffle plate. Correspondingly, the current
density spike is more evident as the O2 enrichment is more
significant, as shown in Figs. 9 and 10. Due to the baffle plate,
the average current density is elevated compared with that of
the conventional channel, and the average current density
increases with the blockage ratio shown in Fig. 11 (b). The
effect of the baffle plate on the PEMFC performance is evident,
and the average current density or power density is increased
by 5.54% for the blockage ratio of 1.0, compared with the
conventional channel.

Fig. 16 e Current density distribution along the channel length direction for various baffle plate numbers.
8060 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2
Fig. 17 e Effect of the baffle plate number on the fuel cell
average current density.
Fig. 18 e Effect of the baffle plate number on the pressure
drop, gross power, pumping power and net power of the
fuel cell for the fuel cell output voltage of 0.52 V.
The addition of the baffle plate may increase the pressure
drop in the flow channel. To make the PEMFC performance
optimization more reasonable, the pumping power of the gas
supply should be taken into consideration. The pressure drop
and the resulting pumping power are given in Fig. 12. It is
found that the pressure drop is quite small for small blockage
ratios; however, the pressure loss increases dramatically as
the blockage ratio continues to increase after 0.8, leading to
larger pumping power for the reactant gas supply. Especially
Fig. 19 e O2 concentration in the middle x-y plane (z ¼ 0.001 m) of the channel: (a) with even blockage ratios (0.8); (b) with
increasing blockage ratios (0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8).
when the channel is fully blocked with the blockage of 1.0, the
reactant gas can only be forced to flow in the porous electrode
which makes the pressure loss extremely large. The gross
power and net power of fuel cell are also shown in Fig. 12.
Although the fuel cell gross power for the blockage ratio of 1.0
is the largest, the net power calculated by the gross power
subtracting the pumping power for the blockage ratio of 0.8 is
the largest, due to the extremely large pumping power of the
fully blocked channel. Taking the pumping power into
consideration, the channel with the blockage ratio of 0.8 per-
forms best in net power rather than the fully blocked channel,
and the largest fuel cell net power is increased by 3.73%,
compared with the conventional channel.
Effect of the baffle plate number
The effect of the baffle plate number on the mass transport
characteristics and fuel cell performance is also investigated.
The baffle plate numbers investigated are 0, 1, 3, 5 and 7,
respectively. The blockage ratio is fixed as 0.8 for the cases
investigated.
Fig. 13 shows the velocity distribution in the channel with
different baffle plate numbers. It is straightforward that the
number of convection regions increases with the baffle plate
number, with the largest velocity almost the same in the
channel with baffle plates. More convection regions lead to
more even velocity distribution in the channel, benefitting the
gas transport in the electrode. Correspondingly, the number of
O2 enrichment regions increases and the O2 distributes more
evenly with the baffle plate number, as shown in Figs. 14 and
15. However, the channel blockage effect is too strong for the
baffle plate number of 7, which impedes the O2 transport,
decreasing the O2 concentration in the channel downstream
when compared with that for the baffle plate number of 5.
Fig. 16 shows the current density distribution along the
channel length direction. The local current density has a tight
relationship with the O2 concentration, and the number and
location of spikes in the current density curve is consistent
with the O2 enrichment regions induced by the baffle plates.
The average current density increases first then decreases
after the peak value as shown in Fig. 17. In order to better
optimize the baffle number, the results for the channel with 4
and 6 baffle plates are also included in Fig. 17. The largest
average current density occurs when the baffle plate number
is 5, increased by 9.46% compared with the conventional
channel.
The pressure drop and the resulting pumping power are
given in Fig. 18. The pressure loss and the pumping power
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 3 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 8 0 4 8 e8 0 6 2
Fig. 20 e O2 concentration in cathode at the x-z plane (y ¼ 0.00155 m) of the GDL for the channel: (a) with even blockage
ratios (0.8); (b) with increasing blockage ratios (0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8).
increase with the baffle plate number. The fuel cell gross
power and net power are also given in Fig. 18, with the largest
values both observed when the baffle plate number is 5. The
fuel cell net power is increased by 9.39% for the channel with 5
baffle plates, compared with the conventional channel.
Design of channel with gradually increasing blockage ratios
In order to further improve the PEMFC performance, a novel
design of channel is conceived to achieve more even reactant
and current density distributions. The blockage ratios of the
baffle plate are not the same, but increase along the channel
length direction from 0.4 to 0.8. The gradual increase in
blockage ratios lead to greater convection effect, then stronger
O2 enrichment, and thus can somehow compensate the O2
consumption along the channel length direction, making the
O2 distribution in the channel more evenly.
A comparison of the O2 concentration distributions is
shown in Figs. 19 and 20. It reveals that the design of channel
having gradually increasing blockage ratios achieves more
even O2 distributions in the flow channel, compared with the
channel having even blockage ratios. Moreover, the pressure
loss is also greatly decreased attributed to the smaller
blockage ratios (decreased by 43%). As a result, the fuel cell net
power for the novel design is further increased by 2.73%
compared with that for the channel having even blockage
ratios (5 same baffle plates), and increased by 12.12%
compared with that for the conventional channel.
Conclusions
In this study, a 3D proton exchange membrane fuel cell
(PEMFC) model incorporating the liquid water transport is
established to investigate the mass transport and fuel cell
performance with the installation of baffle plates. The
pumping power is considered in the fuel cell performance
optimization. It is found that the reactant gas transport from
the channel to the porous electrode changes from diffusion to
convection in the region around the baffle plate, which
removes the liquid water and improves the mass transport
efficiency. The O2 concentration and consequently the current
density are enhanced due to the installation of the baffle plate.
The fuel cell gross power increases with the blockage ratio, but
excessively large blockage ratio results in large pumping
power, and the blockage ratio of 0.8 is found to achieve the
largest fuel cell net power. The baffle plate number is
8061
investigated and optimized. It is found that excessive large
baffle plate number impedes the reactant transport to the
downstream in the channel, damaging the fuel cell perfor-
mance. The optimal baffle plate number for the present study
is 5 in terms of the fuel cell net power. The optimal channel
design increases the fuel cell net power by 9.39% compared
with the conventional channel. A novel channel design with
gradually increasing blockage ratios is also proposed, which
shows even better fuel cell performance with an increase in
fuel cell net power by 12.12%, due to the more even reactant
distribution and smaller pressure loss.
Acknowledgement
This work is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51706153) and the Natural
Science Foundation of Tianjin, China (Grant No.
17JCZDJC31000).
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