Numerical Modeling of Velocity and Temperature Distributions in a Bipolar Plate of PEM Electrolysis Cell with Greatly Improved Flow Uniformity

In this present work, finite volume method was used to simulate the three-dimensional water flow and heat transfer in a flow field plate of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis cell. The standard k-εmodel together with standard wall function method was used to model three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer. First, numerical simulations were performed for a basic bipolar plate and it was found that the flow distribution inside the channels in not uniform. The design of the basic bipolar plate has been changed to a new model, which is featured with multiple inlets and multiple outlets. Numerical results show that the flow and temperature distributions for the new design become much homogeneous