A hydrodynamic network model for interdigitated flow fields

The flow field is one of the main components of a fuel cell, which distributes the reactants to the active area of the cell and evacuates the products formed. Interdigitated flow field (IFF) is one among the different types of flow field designs that forces the reactants or products to flow through the electrode, thereby increasing the cell performance by decreasing concentration polarization loss, however, at the cost of higher-pressure drop. Prior understanding of the reactant and water vapour distribution in a flow field helps in obtaining the best flow field design. In the present paper, a model for the flow distribution and the pressure drop in an IFF has been developed using the analogy between fluid flow and electrical network in which the pressure is made analogous to the voltage and the flow rate to the current. The model, which ultimately reduces to the solution of a set of simultaneous algebraic equations, is capable of predicting the flow split among a set of inlet and outlet channels of an interdigitated flow field as well as the overall pressure drop for laminar, turbulent and two-phase flow conditions for arbitrary number of parallel channels. The results from the hydrodynamic network model have been validated against CFD simulations. This model can therefore be used for the optimization of interdigitated flow field design.