Engineering Commons^™

Constructal Alkaline Membrane Fuel Cell (Amfc) Design, E. M. Sommer, J. V. C. Vargas, Lauber De Souza Martins, J. C. Ordonez

Faculty Publications

This paper introduces a structured procedure to optimize the internal structure (relative sizes, spacing) and external shape (aspect ratios) of a single alkaline membrane fuel cell so that net power is maximized. The optimization of flow geometry is conducted for the smallest (elemental) level of a fuel cell stack, i.e., the single alkaline membrane fuel cell, which is modeled as a unidirectional flow system. The polarization curve, total and net power, and efficiency are obtained as functions of temperature, pressure, electrolyte solution concentration (KOH), geometry and operating parameters. The optimization is subjected to fixed total volume. There are two levels …