Flow Field Structure Design Based On Bionics And TRIZ For PEMFC Bipolar Plate

The Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is provide with advantages, such as efficient and safe, environment-friendly, low operating temperature, quick start-up,etc. It can be widely used in aerospace, military, mobile power, portable power and decentralized power station. The PEMFC used hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, the whole energy conversion process almost has no negative impact on the environment, it becomes the research focus because of its broad market prospects and great commercial value.The bipolar plate is a key component of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell, it plays the role to distribute the fuel and oxidizer, collect the current, remove the water, conduct the heat and support the membrane electrode. The flow field of the bipolar plate is the transport channel of the reactive gas, the structure of the flow field directly affects the proton exchange membrane fuel cell’s performance. The conventional flow field exists some shortage such as large pressure drop, low reaction gas utilization, uneven distribution of current density, which seriously restricts to enhance the performance of the PEMFC. At present, some researchers introduced the fractal theory and constructal theory into the design of bipolar plate’s flow field.This paper starts from the Theory of the Solution of Inventive Problems (TRIZ), investigates the contradiction in the PEMFC, indentifies the conflict between the power and water content. For technical contradictions between the power and amount of substance, TRIZ recommended three innovative principles, including asymmetry, periodic action, rejecting and regenerating, in the contradiction matrix. Asymmetry was used to design an innovative bipolar plate’s flow field in this paper. The vein has a natural non-symmetry structure, through the natural evolution, which must have its advantages. Especially, the pattern of the veins to deliver nutrients and the way of the PEMFC to transport reaction gas are very similar. In this paper, a novel biomimetic flow field was designed; the new flow field and the parallel flow field were simulated using Fluent; the differences between novel biomimetic flow field and parallel flow field in the reaction gas distribution, pressure drop etc.were analyzed. At the same time, PEMFC performances for different operating conditions were discussed.