TPMS based porous media for improved reactant transport in high current density polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell operations

To address the challenges of water flooding and flow maldistribution in high current density operations of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), this study investigates the use of triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) based porous media for replacing conventional parallel flow-field (CPFF) patterns. The performance of fuel cells, with emphasis on reactant transport and water management, is analyzed through a multi-physical three-dimensional numerical model. To evaluate the impact of TPMS flow-fields, BPs were designed with ignorable difference in contact area ratio between BP and gas diffusion layer, ensuring comparable interfacial contact resistance. Compared to CPFF, the novel flow-field based on I-lattice promote a more uniform distribution of reactants and exhibit better liquid water saturation in porous media, thus, exhibiting greater current densities 8-15% in ohmic loss regime and nearly 22% in mass-limited regime. The flow-field based on G-lattice achieved a current density of 1.91 A/cm2 at cell voltage 0.4V, higher than that of I-lattice based flow-field (1.70A/cm2). Both innovative flow-field also yield no sharply drops in PEMFC performance at high current densities, indicating reduced susceptibility to water flooding and oxidant starvation. Furthermore, integration of a hierarchical inlet/outlet structure inspired by leaf veins contributes to further enhancement of fuel cell performance. The findings of this study points toward a new research direction centered around leveraging TPMS porous media for PEMFC performance enhancement, offering fresh insights for future investigations