Prediction of anode performances of direct methanol fuel cells with different flow-field design using computational simulation

Three-dimensional computational simulation was employed to illustrate the performance characteristics according to the flow-field design by solving the physics in the flow field and the diffusion layer and by calculating the electrochemical reaction at the catalyst layer. The pressure loss and the concentration distribution in the anode were analyzed for four types of flow field, parallel, serpentine, parallel serpentine and zigzag type. Also the anode current density distribution was predicted at the various overpotentials. The cell performance was proportional to the pressure drop for all the flow-field types. Zigzag type showed the best performance which has a good resistance against the fuel concentration polarization and the next was serpentine.