Influence of bio-inspired flow channel designs on the performance of a PEM fuel cell

Performance of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC)is appreciably affected by the channel geometry.The branching structure of a plant leaf and human lung is an efficient network to distribute the nutrients in the respective systems.The same nutrient transport system can be mimicked in the flow channel design of a PEMFC,to aid even reactant distribution and better water management.In this work,the effect of bio-inspired flow field designs such as lung and leaf channel design bipolar plates,on the performance of a PEMFC was examined experimentally at various operating conditions.A PEMFC of 49 cm2 area,with a Nafion 212 membrane with a 40%catalyst loading of 0.4 mg·cm-2 on the anode side and also 0.6 mg·cm-2 on the cathode side is assembled by incorporating the bio-inspired channel bipolar plate,and was tested on a programmable fuel-cell test station.The impact of the working parameters like reactants’relative humidity(RH),back pressure and fuel cell temperature on the performance of the fuel cell was examined;the operating pressure remains constant at 0.1 MPa.It was observed that the best performance was attained at a back pressure of 0.3 MPa,75°C operating temperature and 100%RH.The three flow channels were also compared at different operating pressures ranging from 0.1 MPa to 0.3 MPa,and the other parameters such as operating temperature,RH and back pressure were set as 75°C,100%and 0.3 MPa.The experimental outcomes of the PEMFC with bio-inspired channels were compared with the experimental results of a conventional triple serpentine flow field.It was observed that among the different flow channel designs considered,the leaf channel design gives the best output in terms of power density.Further,the experimental results of the leaf channel design were compared with those of the interdigitated leaf channel design.The PEMFC with the interdigitated leaf channel design was found to generate 6.72%more power density than the non-interdigitated leaf channel design.The fuel cell with interdigitated leaf channel design generated5.58%more net power density than the fuel cell with non-interdigitated leaf channel design after considering the parasitic losses.

Optimization of nanofiber scaffold properties towards nerve guidance channel design

Nerve guidance channels are limited by lack of topographical guidance：Treatment of sizeable nerve gaps remains problematic following peripheral nerve injury.Functional outcomes are good when neurorrhaphy,or direct end-to-end suture repair,is possible.The problem arises when there is significant segmental loss,which can occur following trauma as well as oncological procedures.

Mitigating adjacent channel interference in vehicular communication systems

In the last few decades, dedicated wireless channels were specifically allocated to enable the development and implementation of vehicular communication systems. The two main protocol stacks, the WAVE stan- dards proposed by the IEEE in the United States and the ETSI ITS-G5 in Europe, reserved 10 MHz wide channels in the 5.9 GHz spectrum band. Despite the exclusive use of these frequencies for vehicular com- munication purposes, there are still cross channel interference problems that have been widely reported in the literature. In order to mitigate these issues, this paper presents the design of a two-stage FIR low-pass filter, targeting the integration with a digital baseband receiver chain of a custom vehicular communications platform. The filter was tested, evaluated and optimized, with the simulation results proving the effectiveness of the proposed method and the low delay introduced in the overall operation of the receiver chain. 2016 Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Production and Hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

Numerical Study of Water Transport and Operating Strategy for Fuel Cells with Segmented Water Management Flow Fields

The effective cathode flow field design can realize the internal water balance and higher current density output of proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFC).Therefore,a segmented water management flow field is proposed in this study,i.e.a half separated-half coupled cathode(HSHC)flow field which has two inlets but just one outlet.A 3D numerical PEMFC model is applied to study the effect of the HSHC flow field on PEMFC performance and its operating strategy in terms of operating conditions.The study results are shown as follows:Compared with the two conventional cathode flow fields,the HSHC flow field improves the water balance along the channel and increases the current density by 17.1%at a cathode stoichiometry of 3.25.It is because the HSHC flow field can overcome the water loss at channels upstream and the water accumulation at channels downstream.The draw water phenomenon(DWP)in the HSHC flow field is observed,which is mainly affected by the water vapor pressure of channel.Based on the DWP,cooling channel inlet flow rates can be used to adjust water balance,but severe water loss should be avoided.In addition,the inlet temperature control in HSHC flow field should be that cell temperature>cathode channel inlet temperature>cooling channel inlet temperature>ambient temperatures for better water balance.

Flow field optimization and design for a Spallation Neutron Source target cooling system

Cooling water is an important part in a Spallation Neutron Source target cooling system, but the unstable vortexes at the exits of the slits between every two tungsten target slices have a negative impact on the stable running of the target system. We apply the field synergy principle for fluid flow to obtain the optimal flow field, which has a uniform velocity distribution without eddy, and then, optimize the geometrical structure of the cooling water flow channel based on the optimal flow field. The results show that when the cooling water flows in the optimized channel, the eddy sizes decrease, the time fluctuations of velocity and pressure almost vanish, and the volume flow rates of the cooling water in each parallel slit are uniform. Therefore, it effectively improves the running stability of the target system with the premise of satisfying the target heat load.