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Electrochemistry Received:
Accepted:
Published online:
Issued:
April 23, 2023
June 5, 2023
June 8, 2023
to be determined.
UNCORRECTED PROOF
1 1

2
The Electrochemical Society of Japan https://doi.org/10.5796/electrochemistry.23-00043 2

3 3

4 Article Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10 4

5 5

6
Three Dimensional Structure Optimization of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell 6

7 with Radial Flow Field Based on Topology Optimization 7

8 8

9
Cheng QU and Minggang ZHENG* 9

10 School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, 1000 Fengming Road, Jinan, 250101 Shandong, China 10

11 11

12
* Corresponding author: why1318@sdjzu.edu.cn 12

13 13
ABSTRACT
14 14
This article uses the topological optimization method to optimize the flow field of radial proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Due to the
15 15
high computational cost of this method, the model was simplified to a two-dimensional model, and the cathode flow field was studied under
16 16
isothermal and steady-state conditions. Using the gradient-based algorithm SNOPT, the flow field evolves freely in the sector design domain
17 17
to maximize battery power and minimize reaction energy loss. Perform 3D modeling of the obtained optimized model and optimize the
18 18
longitudinal depth by applying different tilt angles and obstacles. The results indicate that the application of obstacles has a significant
19 19
optimization effect on speed. Setting the gradient has a better effect on the oxygen concentration distribution. With the increase of the
20 20
gradient, the uniformity of the oxygen concentration distribution is also increased. As the inclination increases, the pressure difference of the
21 21
reaction gas gradually increases, and the pressure uniformly decreases. After setting obstacles, the pressure of the reaction gas decreases
22 22
step by step after passing through each obstacle. The effect of increasing the inclination to increase the average current density is better than
23 23
setting obstacles, and the comprehensive effect of setting an inclination of 2° is the best at working voltages of 0.5 V and 0.6 V.
24 24

25 25

26
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by ECSJ. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- 26
ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction
27 27
in any medium by share-alike, provided the original work is properly cited. For permission for commercial reuse, please email to the corresponding author. [DOI:
28 10.5796/electrochemistry.23-00043]. 28

29 29

30 30
Keywords : Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, Topology Optimization, Inclination, Obstacle
31 31

32 32

33 1. Introduction Andreas5 et al. use the gradient penalty of elements to obtain 33

34 stability and prevent chessboard, while the very fine structure can 34

35 The fuel cell is an important conversion medium in hydrogen solve the sharp problems in topology optimization through the 35

36 energy, and in new energy, hydrogen energy has attracted people’s adaptive mesh division of the material void interface, and obtain the 36

37 attention as a clean secondary energy, known as the “ultimate same qualitative structure and quantitative stiffness as the uniform 37

38 energy” of the 21st century. Proton exchange membrane fuel cell mesh. Zhang6 et al. proposed an effective improved evolutionary 38

39 (PEMFC) have the characteristics of high power density, low topology optimization (M-ETO) method to design hyperelastic 39

40 operating noise, and pollution-free products, making them highly structures with large deformation. This improvement enables 40

41 competitive in future transportation power systems.1,2 The electrode nonlinear topology optimization problems to be solved at a 41

42 plate is an important component of PEMFC, which can connect relatively large evolution rate. Wang7 et al. designed a novel porous 42

43 adjacent monomers and support the stack structure. Its surface structure optimization method based on local volume constraints for 43

44 design will affect the distribution of reaction gases and hydrothermal TOM, which specifies the topological skeleton of the stress field as a 44

45 management, affecting the performance of the battery.3 Therefore, density field as a solid simulation element. These elements guide the 45

46 the study of bipolar plates is particularly important for improving the deposition of materials around them and can also be reshaped or 46

47 performance of PEMFC. In this paper, the topology optimization removed during the optimization process, improving the conver- 47

48 method is used to find the optimal transverse channel layout in the gence and optimization speed of information optimization. Pedro8 48

49 radial flow field design domain of PEMFC, and the gradient and et al. proposed a two-step solution method that decouples the overall 49

50 obstacles are applied to the longitudinal depth for optimal design, aeroelastic performance target from the solid-air topological 50

51 and compared with the traditional flow field. structure on the search structure, solving the problem of reference 51

52 Topology optimization (TOM) is a structural optimization fully coupled fluid-structure, and providing numerical examples of 52

53 method based on load conditions, constraints (such as stress, compliant wings with performance targets at two Mach numbers. 53

54 displacement, frequency, weight, etc.), and performance indicators Pollini9 designed a density-based topology optimization method to 54

55 (stiffness, weight, etc.), using finite element analysis to make the solve the problem of wind farm layout optimization and maximized 55

56 design domain reach the optimal material layout for simulation its energy production under the condition of limiting the minimum 56

57 calculation.4 TOM is suitable for solid, fluid, and fluid-solid and maximum number of wind turbines placed and the minimum 57

58 coupling devices, and can meet multi-objective and multi constraint spacing between wind turbines. 58

59 conditions. It can be flexibly applied to various complex working Topology optimization is also widely used in redox batteries. 59

60 conditions. Because the model after topology optimization is Mathieu-Potvin10 et al. used the gradient-based algorithm for 60

61 difficult to produce directly, it is usually used as a preliminary topology optimization of the platinum density in the cathode 61

62 design in design, and further artificial optimization design is carried catalyst layer to improve the utilization rate of the catalyst, to 62

63 out according to production and actual conditions. maximize the current density of the total fixed platinum. It was 63

64 found that under the high stoichiometric ratio, platinum is 64

65 C. Qu orcid.org/0009-0005-9477-1985 concentrated in the near film layer with a high reaction rate. 65

66 M. Zheng orcid.org/0000-0002-4235-403X Xun11 et al. developed a single-stage power conversion topology 66

1
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10
UNCORRECTED PROOF
1 that can directly couple energy storage devices, applying a branches, and waveform amplitude of branches on PEMFC. It was 1

2 fluctuating voltage topology, thereby reducing costs and making it found that the battery performance was best when there were 8 2

3 more compact without a DC/DC converter. The feasibility and branches, 4 layers, and 15° branch curvature. 3

4 effectiveness of this topology structure were demonstrated through This study is based on the average depth model, simplifying the 4

5 simulation results of fuel cell supercapacitor powertrain modeling. 3D model to a 2D model, and using topology logic optimization to 5

6 Kim12 et al. described the derivation and solution of a new design the model. Design a TOM model to minimize the power loss 6

7 mathematical equation for topology optimization, which combines and energy dissipation of the battery. The resulting TOM model is 7

8 density-based algorithms, moving asymptote interpolation (MMA), modeled in three dimensions and optimized in terms of longitudinal 8

9 and incompressible Navier Stokes equations to design the topology depth by applying different inclinations and obstacles. 9

10 of parallel flow fields, and studied the influence of key design 10

11 parameters and pressure drop on topology optimization. Zhang13 2. Numerical Simulation 11

12 et al. analyzed the stress and displacement distribution of the end 12

13 plate through numerical simulation. Three optimization topologies In PEMFC composed of the cathode side and anode side, oxygen 13

14 were developed to minimize flexibility, uniform stress distribution, is reduced and hydrogen is oxidized. Topology optimization can 14

15 and two objective couplings. The inlet end plate and blind end plate reduce computer research time and computing costs. In this study, 15

16 were reconstructed respectively, reducing the mass of the optimized we will take the cathode reaction zone of radial PEMFC composed 16

17 inlet end plate by 35 % and the weight of the optimized blind end of cathode plate and cathode gas diffusion layer (GDL) as the 17

18 plate by 46 %. Reza14 et al. used the average depth model, designed research object, and other influencing factors of the fuel cell layer 18

19 3DPEMFC into a 2D model, and carried out topology optimization as the boundary conditions and feature settings of the model. 19

20 for 2D models of the parallel flow field. Compared with the COMSOL Multiphysicsμ 26 is commonly used for finite element 20

21 traditional flow field, the topology optimization design significantly analysis in the field of fuel cells, and can also be used for simulation 21

22 enhanced the power generation performance, improved the reactant design of topology optimization. However, the topology optimiza- 22

23 distribution, and reduced the pressure drop. tion problem of 3D PEMFC is more complex, so the average depth 23

24 The radial flow field can quickly and uniformly distribute the model can be used to simplify the complex problem of 3D PEMFC 24

25 reaction gas, and timely discharge the water generated by the into a two-dimensional plane structure model. Using a fully coupled 25

26 reaction, thereby improving the output power of PEMFC and solver to solve the finite element method, the convergence of the 26

27 ensuring its reliability under various working conditions, thus nonlinear equation is improved through multiple iterations and 27

28 having great development space. Nakanishi,15 Diethelm,16 and gradual approximation, and the problem of coupling multiple 28

29 others first proposed a kind of radial flow field structure in the case physical fields is solved. The optimization solver optimizes the flow 29

30 of building a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack. They pointed out in field structure of radial PEMFC and terminates the optimization 30

31 their research that this structure can effectively solve the problem of iteration calculation when the maximum number of iterations is 31

32 brittle bipolar plates in the process of fuel cell stack assembly. reached. 32

33 Batawi17 adopted a radial structure design in the high-temperature 33

34 fuel cell stack and for the first time integrated the exhaust gas 2.1 Model assumptions 34

35 treatment device of the post-combustion process onto the bipolar This article adopts the following assumptions in constructing the 35

36 plate, greatly reducing the volume and manufacturing cost of the PEMFC model 36

37 stack. To improve the water and gas transmission capacity on the 1. Steady state, laminar flow; 37

38 cathode side, Schuler18 used various circular bipolar plates with 2. The reaction gas is compressible at the inlet; 38

39 labyrinth flow channel structures in his case and confirmed the 3. Maintaining a constant model temperature is controlled by an 39

40 superior performance of such structures in gas transportation, external controller 40

41 distribution, exhaust emissions, and other aspects through subse- 4. The single-phase weighted hybrid model is assumed to reduce 41

42 quent research. Doggwiller19,20 used a lattice structure flow field in the calculation cost of the topology optimization model. 42

43 his case and compared it with a maze structure flow field. The results Considering the small height of the channel and GDL, water 43

44 indicate that the flow field using a lattice structure also exhibits management can be simplified no matter how the flow field is 44

45 excellent material transport performance. Hernandez Guerrero21 designed,27 45

46 selected a quarter of the radial flow field area and simulated the 5. Porous materials are isotropic with uniform porosity; 46

47 current density distribution characteristics and the mass transfer 6. Assuming that the membrane is impermeable; 47

48 speed in GDL of PEMFC with 4-channel, 8-channel, and 12-channel 7. Neglecting water transport through membranes; 48

49 structures respectively. The results show that the three structures 8. Set reactant gas and water vapor as an ideal gas. 49

50 show significant performance improvement compared with the 50

51 traditional parallel flow field, serpentine flow field, and other 2.2 Simplified model 51

52 structures. Vladimir 22 integrates the characteristics of the radial flow To simplify the 3D model, the same transmission conditions need 52

53 field and interdigital flow field, forcing gas to pass through the to be used when using the average depth model. The three- 53

54 diffusion layer under pressure to participate in the reaction through dimensional PEMFC model and the two-dimensional model using 54

55 discontinuous flow channel settings, thereby improving gas the average depth model are shown in Fig. 1. Based on the material 55

56 utilization and battery power density, ultimately achieving the goal characteristics of the channel or rib plate in the three-dimensional 56

57 of improving battery performance. The radial flow field structure model and GDL, the equivalent porosity (¥), permeability (J), and 57

58 proposed by Perez 23 can avoid large pressure drops, but this type of diffusion coefficient (D) of the porous channel (ch) or porous rib 58

59 structure is too complex. When one of the outlets is blocked by (rib) in the two-dimensional model can be calculated as follows: 59

60 water, it often leads to problems such as water flooding and uneven Pgdl Hgdl þ Pa Ha 60

61 pressure distribution. Friess24 et al. designed a novel cathode radial P
a ¼ ; P ¼ f¥; ¬; Dg; a ¼ fch; ribg ð1Þ 61
Hgdl þ Hch
62 flow field that uses a flow control ring to distribute gas more evenly. 62

63 This design can effectively improve battery performance and reduce Where, H is the height of each layer of PEMFC, P
is the average 63

64 the pressure drop by nearly 50 % compared to the serpentine flow property. Equivalent porosity (¥ð£Þ), Brinkman constant (A(C)), and 64

65 field. Zhang 25 et al. designed a new rim-shaped radial flow field diffusion coefficient (D(C)) will be taken as the design parameters for 65

66 structure and studied the effects of layer number, number of topology optimization. 66

2
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10
UNCORRECTED PROOF
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6 6

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10 10

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12 12

13 13

14 Figure 1. 3D radial PEMFC and 2D model using average-depth model. 14

15 15

16 16

17 2.2.1 Conservation of mass and momentum Table 1. PEMFC performance and topological optimization
17

18 The Brinkman equation, which combines the continuity equation parameters.

18

19 and momentum equation, describes the flow in porous media as 19

20 follows: Symbol Value Description 20

21
rðµuÞ ¼ 0 ð2Þ Dimensional parameters
21

22 22
1 Rin 5 © 10¹4 Inlet radius/m
23 µðurÞu 23

24
¥ð£Þ2 Rout 1.5 © 10¹2 Outlet radius/m 24
1 12® ®
25
¼ rp þ ur2 u  u u ð3Þ Hch 1 © 10¹3 Channel height/m 25
¥ð£Þ 2
ðHgdl þ Hch Þ2 ¬ð£Þ
5 © 10¹4
26 26
Hgdl GDL height/m
27 Where, u is the velocity vector, p is the relative pressure, µ is the 27
¢geo 60 Section angle/deg
28 gas density and ® is the dynamic viscosity. Porosity ¥ð£Þ is the first 28

29 design-dependent feature. The third term of the right momentum PEMFC properties and parameters 29

30 equation considers the velocity gradient perpendicular to the two- Vcell 0.6 Cell voltage/V 30

31 dimensional plane.28 The last item about the right side of the equation 31
Voc 1.23 Open-circuit voltage/V
32 is Darcy velocity, which represents the viscous resistance of fluid in 32

33 porous media, where ¬ is permeability. Therefore, the following T 343.15 Cell temperature/K 33

34 Brinkman constant A(C) will be the second design-related feature: Tref 298.15 Reference temperature/K 34

35 ® Pref 101325 Reference pressure/atm 35

¡ð£Þ ¼ ð4Þ
36
¬ð£Þ Rlump 7 © 10¹5 Lumped resistance/³ m2 36

Inlet velocity/m s¹1

37 37
Uin 2
38 2.2.2 Conservation of species 38

39 The equation of species conservation is: ½O2in

0.228 Inlet mass fraction of O2 39

40 ½in
H2 O 0.023 Inlet mass fraction of H2O 40
ðHgdl þ Hch ÞµðurÞ½ k ¼ ðHgdl þ Hch Þrjk ð£Þ þ Rk ð5Þ
41 ½inN2 0.749 Inlet mass fraction of N2 41

42 The convection term on the left consists of the mass fraction ½k COref2 30 Reference concentration of O2/mol m¹3 42

43 as a species, k = {O2, N2, H2O}. The diffusion term on the right side Ac 0.5 Cathode transfer coefficient 43

44 of the equation term explains the species diffusion mass flux jk(C), 44
i0 0.17 Exchange current density/A m¹2
45 which is approximately defined by mixed average diffusion: 45

 ns 3 Number of species k = {O2, N2, H2O}
m rM
46 46

47 jk ð£Þ ¼ Dð£Þ µDm k r½ k þ µ½ D

k k ð6Þ ne 4 Number of electrons 47
M
48 MH2 O 0.018 Molar mass of H2O/kg mol¹1 48

49 Where, D(C) is the third design-related characteristic factor MN2 0.028 Molar mass of N2/kg mol¹1 49

representing the diffusion coefficient. Under the assumption of

Molar mass of O2/kg mol¹1
50 50
MO2 0.032
51 isobaric and isothermal conditions, Dm
k in the Eq. 6 can be used to 51

52 derive by Maxwell Stefan equation:29 ¯H 2 O 2 Chemometric coefficient of H2O 52

¯N 2 0 Chemometric coefficient of N2
53
1  ½k 53

54 k ¼ X
Dm ð7Þ ¯O 2 ¹1 Chemometric coefficient of O2 54
ns ½j ¹5 2 ¹1
55
j6¼k Dref
O2 ;H2 O 2.82 © 10 O 2 diffusion coefficient in H2O/m s
55
D kj
56
DN2 ;H2 O 2.56 © 10 N2 diffusion coefficient in H2O/m2 s¹1
ref ¹5 56

57 Where ns is the number of species, Dkj can be calculated using the 57

Dref
O2 ;N2 2.2 © 10¹5 O2 diffusion coefficient in N2/m2 s¹1
58 reference value of the binary diffusion coefficient: 58

59

 Jgdl 1.18 © 10¹11 Permeability of GDL/m2 59

Pref T 1:75
60 D kj ¼ Dkjref ð8Þ ¥gdl 0.4 Porosity of GDL 60
P Tref
61 ® 2.07 © 10¹5 Dynamic viscosity/Pa s 61

62 Dkjref , Pref and Tref are provided in Table 1. µ 1 Gas density/kg/m3 62

The average molar mass M can be written as:

8.3144 Universal gas constant/J mol¹1 K¹1
63 63
Rg
64
1 Xns ½ k 64

65 ¼ ð9Þ F 96485.3 Faraday constant (constant)/C mol¹1 65

M k¼1 M
k
66 Continued on next page: 66

3
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10
UNCORRECTED PROOF
1
Continued: 2.3 Topological optimization 1

2 Topology optimization is used to design the optimal flow field 2

Symbol Value Description
3 of the circular radial flow field, and a gradient-based optimization 3

4 Average-depth model parameters method is used. The sparse nonlinear optimization SNOPT is 4

5
Jrib 3.8 © 10¹12 Equivalent permeability of porous ribs/m2 suitable for topology optimization problems with nonlinear 5

6 dependent design variables. When the relative change value of 6

Equivalent permeability of porous chan-
7 Jch 1000 the design variable is less than the optimality tolerance value set 7
nels/m2
8 by the SNOPT solver, the SNOPT optimization solver ends with a 8

9
¥rib 0.22029 Equivalent porosity of porous ribs value of 1 © 10¹7. The parameters related to this algorithm are 9

10 ¥ch 0.94493 Equivalent porosity of porous channels listed in Table 1. Because the discrete design variables have no 10

11 Drib 0.19703 Equivalent diffusivity of porous ribs well-defined derivative information, the optimization is based on 11

12
Equivalent diffusion coefficient of porous continuous design variables, which makes the topology optimiza- 12

13 Dch 0.92167 tion problem ill-posed. Therefore, the material model allocates 13
channels
14 intermediate values between porous ribs (0) and porous channels 14

15
Topology optimization parameters (1). 15

16 q 1 Convex factor 2.3.1 Material modeling and regularization 16

17
p 4 Penalty factor The material model can describe continuous design variables 17

from 0 to 1, and its formula defines the degree of sparsity. The

Rmin 3.5 © 10¹4 Filter radius/m
18 18

19 material model of this study applies a specific method to each design 19

20
B 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 Projection slope parameter based on density. Indicator C represents a continuous 20

21 HB 0.5 Projection point design variable field used to interpolate three design-related 21

22 C0 0.5 Initial value of control variable attributes ¥ð£Þ, A(C), and D(C). C 2 [0, 1] indicates porous rib (0), 22

23 topt 1 © 10¹7 Optimum tolerance porous channel (1), or any intermediate value between 0 and 1 (0, 1). 23

24
evmax 5000 Maximum number of model evaluations The latter means that the average properties can continuously 24

25 change from porous ribs to porous channels, in an intermediate state 25

tin 0.001 Internal tolerance factor
26 of fluid-solid coupling. 26

27
Ci 1000 Constrained penalty factor First, porosity ¥ð£Þ of the linear interpolation is as follows:14 27

28 Nin 10 Maximum internal iteration 28

¥ð£Þ ¼ ¥rib þ ð¥ch  ¥rib Þ£ ð15Þ
29 Vmax 0.7 Maximum volume fraction 29

30 Among them, ¥ch and ¥rib are the average porosity of porous 30

31 channels and ribs calculated by Eq. 1. 31

32 Rk in Eq. 5 represents the consumption or production of species Second, the constant Brinkman ¡(C) is discussed in the equation. 32

33 given by14 Using the convex interpolation function30 to interpolate: 33

34
Mk ¯ k iloc 1£ 34

35 Rk ¼ ð10Þ ¡ð£Þ ¼ ¡rib þ ð¡ch  ¡rib Þ ð16Þ 35

ne F 1 þ q£
36 36

37 Where, Mk is the molar mass of the species, ne is the number of Where, the convexity factor q is an adjustable parameter related 37

38 electrons, Mk is the stoichiometric coefficient of the reaction, and F is to the reverse permeability of the intermediate design variable. ¡ch 38

39 the Faraday constant. and ¡rib are scalar values derived from Eqs. 1 and 4 represent the 39

40 2.2.3 Reaction kinetics Brinkman constants for porous channels and porous ribs, respec- 40

41 The reduction reaction of oxygen in the porous cathode is as tively. 41

42 follows: Third, the diffusion coefficient factor D(C), expressed in Eq. 6, is 42

43 þ  interpolated by the solid isotropic material penalty (SIMP) method 43

O2 þ 4H þ 4e $ 2H2 O ð11Þ
44 given below: 44

45 Set the reaction that occurs in the electrolyte and electrode 45

Dð£Þ ¼ Drib þ ðDch  Drib Þ£ p ð17Þ
46 catalytic layer as the cathode boundary condition. This boundary 46

47 condition means the mass flux due to the electrochemical reaction Where, p is the penalty coefficient of the SIMP method. Drib is 47

48 Rk. The electrochemical reaction is measured by iloc means of local the diffusion coefficient factor of porous ribs and Dch is the diffusion 48

49 current density and Butler-Volmer equation according to the coefficient factor of porous channels. Drib and Dch are calculated by 49

50 following dynamic expression:14 the depth averaging program Eq. 1. 50


 Regularization can solve the problem of grid dependency. In this
¡c 1  ¡c
51 51
CO2
52 ilocBV ¼ i0 exp F©c  exp  F©c ð12Þ study, Hermann von Helmholtz filter 31 is used as follows: 52
CO2ref Rg T Rg T
53 53
£f ¼ 2
rmin r2 £ f þ£ ð18Þ
54 The cathode overpotential Gc is calculated by: 54

55 Where, Cf is the filtered design variable. rmin is the minimum 55

©c ¼ VOC  Vcell  Rlump iloc ð13Þ
56 radius of the filter and its minimum value must not be smaller than 56

57 Where lumped resistance Rlump is defined to describe voltage the size of the grid element. Because the radius of the filter is 57

58 losses at the anode, MEA, and GDL due to charge transfer. It is measured in meters, it overcomes the constraint of grid size. 58

59 noteworthy that iloc ¼ ilocBV . Eqs 12 and 13 are highly non-linear. To Although filtering simplifies the solution of optimization problems, 59

60 solve the current density, an additional differential equation can be it leaves a large gray area in the topology. These areas contain 60

61 defined: unphysical intermediate values and therefore wish to use projection 61

62 techniques to reduce grayscale areas. This study used hyperbolic 62

@iloc
63 ¼ iloc  ilocBV ð14Þ tangent projection:32 63
@i
64
tanh𢪠¢ Þ þ tanhð¢ð£ f  ª ¢ ÞÞ 64

65 Among them, iloc is the variable that needs to be solved and £h ¼ ð19Þ 65
tanh𢪠¢ Þ þ tanhð¢ð1  ª ¢ ÞÞ
66 realized by using the ODE interface in COMSOL. 66

4
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10

Where, Ch is the projection design variable, HB is the projection materials used in the optimization process. Ci is an independent
UNCORRECTED PROOF
1 1

2 point, and B is the projection slope. Increasing the projection slope design variable between 0 and 1. N is the number of design 2

3 can reduce the area of intermediate states and obtain clearer variables. 3

4 topological structures, but the discretization of the optimization 2.3.3 Topology optimization process 4

5 results will also be stronger. In the design, it is important to perform Firstly, the preprocessing of the structural model is completed 5

6 parameterized scans to approach discrete solutions. The parameter- through COMSOL, including geometric modeling, design parame- 6

7 ized scan values for B are defined as follows: ters, boundary conditions, and grid settings. The entire process is 7

8 controlled through MATLAB, and the initial structure is analyzed 8

¢ ¼ f2; 4; 6; 8; 10g ð20Þ
9 using the finite element method. Then, the results obtained from the 9

10 Optimization starts with setting the initial design variable first step of analysis are extracted and used as initial design 10

11 C0 = 0.5 for the B = 2. When the solver runs the following B will parameters for the second step of optimization. The optimization 11

12 get the initial design variables from the last solution of the previous results are exported by the SNOPT solver. 12

13 one. Each step of B runs 100 iterations, resulting in a total of 500 13

14 iterations to complete the topology optimization process. 3. Results and Discussion 14

15 2.3.2 Objective function and constraints 15

16 The formula for multi-objective topology optimization is as In this work, the radial flow field of the cyclic PEM fuel cell was 16

17 follows: optimized to maximize power output and minimize dissipated 17

18 Z Z
 energy. The rationality of this program was verified by comparing 18

1
19 min : Vcell  iloc d þ p þ µv2 vnd ð21Þ the finite element simulation results of the 2D model of the dual 19
£ 2
20 Z 
channel serpentine flow channel using the average depth model with 20

21
£ i d its 3D single cathode PEMFC model. The obtained topology 21

22
aim: Z  Vmax optimization model is used for 3D modeling, and different 22

23
1d inclinations and obstacles are applied to optimize the design at the 23

24  longitudinal depth level. 24

25 0  £i  1 25

3.1 Model validation

i 2 f1; 2; 3; . . . ; Ng ð22Þ
26 26

27 We designed a dual channel serpentine flow field with the same 27

28 Multi-objective function Eq. 21 is to maximize the operating design parameters by studying the average depth model published 28

29 power of the battery while minimizing the energy loss of the by Behroo14 et al. The chemical composition of the reactant gas at 29

30 reaction gas. The first function is the generated power, which is the inlet of the model is oxygen, nitrogen, and water, with the 30

31 minimized by a negative sign, where Vcell is the battery voltage, and boundary condition being the average velocity inlet and the outlet 31

32 ³ represents the surface of the design domain. The second function set as a fully developed airflow to suppress reflux and normal flow. 32

33 is power dissipation, which calculates the net energy flux at the inlet The other parameters validated are displayed in Table 1. Therefore, 33

34 and outlet of the battery. p and v are the pressure and velocity of the in the design of the dual channel serpentine flow field, the same 34

35 gas at the corresponding boundary. ¥ is the domain boundary. µ is control equations, conditions, and parameters as the reference paper 35

36 defined by the ideal gas law µ ¼ pRrefg TM, where Rg is the general gas were used, and the average depth model was compared with the 36

37 constant, T is the battery temperature, and the average molar mass M various results of the reference 3D model. It is found that although 37

38 is calculated by Eq. 9. the results of 2D PEMFC cathode simulation using average depth 38

39 The volume constraint expression (Eq. 22) indicates that the model are somewhat different from those of 3D model, their results 39

40 ratio of the volume of the porous channel to the volume of the can be used for the research of radial flow field, so they can be 40

41 total domain cannot exceed a certain percentage. Therefore, Vmax applied to the topology optimization of 2D model, as shown in 41

42 is the maximum volume fraction that limits the number of Fig. 2. 42

43 43

44 44

45 45

46 46

47 47

48 48

49 49

50 50

51 51

52 52

53 53

54 54

55 55

56 56

57 57

58 58

59 59

60 60

61 61

62 62

63 63

64 64

65 65

66 Figure 2. Verification of the average depth model for a dual channel serpentine flow field. 66

5
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10
UNCORRECTED PROOF
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17 Figure 3. Boundary condition setting and grid division of the cathode model for optimization. 17

18 18

19 19

20 20

21 the oxygen concentration distribution map and water concentration 21

22 distribution map, the oxygen concentration distribution difference 22

23 and water concentration distribution difference of the 2D model are 23

24 far less than those of the 3D model, which is due to the fact that the 24

25 channel and GDL of the 3D model are calculated separately, and the 25

26 attributes of the channel and GDL in the 2D model are mixed 26

27 and averaged, which reduces the gas diffusion, so the oxygen 27

28 concentration distribution difference and water concentration 28

29 distribution difference of the 2D model are significantly lower than 29

30 those of the 3D model, Therefore, the 3D model formed by 30

31
Figure 4. Radial PEMFC topological structure. stretching the 2D model of its topology optimization can more 31

32 accurately reflect the optimization effect. 32

33 Therefore, by designing PEMFC models with different inclina- 33

34 tions and different shapes of obstacles, we can use topology 34

35 3.2 Boundary conditions and mesh design of radial flow optimization to design the transverse structure and optimize the 35

36 topology optimization model longitudinal structure at the same time. Affected by the longitudinal 36

37 The pre-optimized radial flow field has a velocity of 2 m s¹1 at depth of the model channel, the inclination of the channel is 37

38 the inlet, a mass fraction of 0.228 for oxygen, 0.023 for water, designed to be 1°, 2° and 3°. The shape of the obstacle structure in 38

39 and 0.749 for nitrogen. The edge boundary has a periodic cycle the longitudinal section is rectangular, triangular, and semicircular, 39

40 condition. The outlet is set to zero stress conditions (rQn = 0) and with a depth of 5 © 10¹4 m, as shown in Fig. 6. 40

41 zero flux (r½O2 n ¼ 0; r½H2 O n ¼ 0) for the transported species, as 3.2.2 Velocity analysis of PEMFC models with different 41

42 shown in Fig. 3a. The attributes and parameters used in modeling inclinations and obstacles 42

43 are shown in Table 1. It can be seen from the speed distribution diagram of each case in 43

44 COMSOL uses the Hermann von Helmholtz filter to extract only Fig. 7 that the speed of each case has been improved to varying 44

45 the grid information of the required element, and filters the material degrees. The peak speed of Case 3 is 2.97 m s¹1, which is 3 % 45

46 volume factor by the product of the Laplace operator of the higher than Case 1 and Case 2. The peak speed of Case 5 and 46

47 minimum filter radius and the volume factor, which improves the Case 6 is 2.99 m s¹1, which is 4.1 % higher than Case 1 and Case 2. 47

48 calculation efficiency. Therefore, the denser the grid, the smaller the It is found from the comparison of Cases 1, 2, and 3 that the peak 48

49 minimum unit of the model’s topological logic structure, and the speed increases with the increase of inclination, and the speed 49

50 clearer the topological logic structure model can be obtained. distribution of Case 3 is more uniform. In Cases 4, 5 and 6, the 50

51 Therefore, the model adopts an extremely fine free quadrilateral speed of reactants will be increased when passing through obstacles, 51

52 fluid dynamics grid distribution, as shown in Fig. 3b. which is more obvious in the speed distribution diagram of Case 5, 52

53 3.2.1 Model optimization analysis and the peak speed of Cases 4, 5, and 6 is larger than that of Cases 1, 53

54 This section shows the results of topology optimization of the 2, and 3, which indicates that setting obstacles is more effective for 54

55 model, as shown in Fig. 4. Among them, the dark region is the speed improvement than increasing the gradient. 55

56 porous rib plate part, and the light region is the porous channel part. 3.2.3 Oxygen concentration analysis of PEMFC models with 56

57 The cathode channel and GDL region are stretched to form a 3D different inclinations and obstacles 57

58 model, respectively. The parameters of the 3D model are shown in From Fig. 8, it can be observed that Cases 2, 3, 4, and 6 have the 58

59 Table 1. largest decrease in oxygen concentration values, at 1.7 mol m¹3, 59

60 The 2D model diagram of topology optimization is directly while Cases 1 and 5 have a smaller decrease in oxygen 60

61 compared with its 3D model diagram through the finite element concentration of 1.5 mol m¹3. According to the oxygen concen- 61

62 method, as shown in Fig. 5. The physical field distribution of the 2D tration distribution, it can be observed that the oxygen concentration 62

63 model is basically consistent with that of the 3D model. According distribution of Case 1, 2, and 3 is more uniform than that of Case 4, 63

64 to its velocity field graph, the speed of the 3D model is 41 % higher 5, and 6, which indicates that the setting of inclination is more 64

65 than that of the 2D model, because the 2D model calculates its effective than the setting of barriers for the uniform distribution of 65

66 average velocity while the 3D model calculates its peak velocity. In oxygen concentration. The oxygen concentration distribution maps 66

6
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10
UNCORRECTED PROOF
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2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

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8 8

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10 10

11 11

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24 Figure 5. Comparison of topological structure PEMFC 2D and 3D model results. 24

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49 Figure 6. PEMFC model with different inclinations and structural obstacles. 49

50 50

51 51

52 of Cases 1, 2, and 3 show that the oxygen concentration distribution pressure loss and are not conducive to drainage, so the layout of 52

53 uniformity increases with the increase of inclination. Cases 1, 2, 4, and 6 is more suitable. 53

54 3.2.4 Pressure analysis of PEMFC models with different 3.2.5 Polarization curve analysis of PEMFC models with 54

55 inclinations and obstacles different inclinations and obstacles 55

56 From Fig. 9, it can be observed that the maximum pressure As shown in Fig. 10a, the average current density and voltage 56

57 difference for Case 3 is 13.1 Pa, while the minimum pressure polarization curves of parallel flow field, serpentine flow field, 57

58 difference for Cases 1 and 6 is 3.0 Pa. From the pressure distribution topology optimization model and optimization case are given. It can 58

59 diagrams of Cases 1, 2, and 3, it can be seen that as the inclination be seen that the radial flow field optimized by topology has higher 59

60 increases, the pressure difference of the reaction gas gradually efficiency than traditional flow fields at medium to high current 60

61 increases, and the pressure decreases more uniformly. From the densities. As shown in Fig. 10b, under a working voltage of 0.6 V, 61

62 pressure distribution diagrams of Cases 4, 5, and 6, it can be seen the maximum average current density of Case 2 is 2434 A m¹2, 62

63 that the maximum pressure difference in Case 5 is 7.57 Pa, while the which is 5 % higher than Case 3, 4 % higher than the serpentine flow 63

64 minimum pressure difference in Case 6 is 2.98 Pa. After setting field, 28 % higher than the parallel flow field, and 3.8 % higher than 64

65 obstacles, the pressure of the reaction gas decreases gradually after the TOM radial flow field; At a working voltage of 0.5 V, the 65

66 passing through each obstacle. Cases 3 and 5 will cause significant maximum current density of Case 3 is 3181 A m¹2, which is 5 % 66

7
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10
UNCORRECTED PROOF
1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

7 7

8 8

9 9

10 10

11 11

12 12

13 13

14 14

15 15

16 16

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24 24

25
Figure 7. Velocity distribution diagram of radial PEMFC cathode models for each case. 25

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53 53

54
Figure 8. Oxygen concentration distribution diagram of radial PEMFC cathode model for each case. 54

55 55

56 56

57 57

58 higher than Case 2, 22 % higher than the serpentine flow field, and obstacles, and at operating voltages of 0.5 V and 0.6 V, Case 2 has 58

59 6 % higher than the TOM radial flow field. At the same time, at a the best overall effect. 59

60 working voltage of 0.6 V, the average current density of Cases 1, 3, 60

61 4, and 5 is lower than the snake shaped flow field and TOM radial 4. Conclusion 61

62 flow field. Case 4 has the worst effect, but at a working voltage of 62

63 0.5 V, all cases have better effects than the snake shaped flow field. The cathode model of PEMFC radial flow field was designed 63

64 However, the average current density of Cases 4 and 6 is lower than through topology optimization. This model was constructed using a 64

65 the TOM radial flow field. Therefore, increasing the inclination has a 2D average depth program, which synthesized the channel, GDL, 65

66 better effect on improving the average current density than setting and cathode electrode into a planar model. The rationality of this 66

8
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10
UNCORRECTED PROOF
1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

7 7

8 8

9 9

10 10

11 11

12 12

13 13

14 14

15 15

16 16

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22 22

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24 24

25 Figure 9. Pressure distribution diagram of radial PEMFC cathode models for each case. 25

26 26

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33 33

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47 47
Figure 10. Polarization curve of radial PEMFC cathode model in each case and average current density histogram of each case under
48 48
operating voltages of 0.5 V and 0.6 V.
49 49

50 50

51 51

52 program was verified by comparing the application of 2D and 3D inclination has a better impact on the oxygen concentration 52

53 snake shaped flow channels with the average depth model. 3D distribution. With the increase of the inclination, the 53

54 modeling of the obtained TOM model and optimizing longitudinal uniformity of the oxygen concentration distribution is also 54

55 depth by applying different tilt angles and obstacles. By comparing increased. 55

56 the velocity, oxygen concentration, and pressure distribution maps (3) By comparing the pressure distribution maps of the optimized 56

57 and polarization curves of each case model, the following cases, as the inclination increases, the pressure difference 57

58 conclusions can be drawn: of the reaction gas gradually increases, and the pressure 58

59 (1) By comparing the speed distribution map of the optimization decreases more evenly. After setting obstacles, the pressure of 59

60 case, it is found that the application of obstacles has a the reaction gas decreases gradually after passing through 60

61 significant optimization effect on the speed. The peak speed of each obstacle. Cases 3 and 5 will cause significant pressure 61

62 Case 3 is 2.97 m s¹1, which is 3 % higher than that of Cases 1 loss, which is not conducive to drainage. Therefore, the layout 62

63 and 2, and the peak speed of Cases 5 and 6 is 2.99 m s¹1, of Cases 1, 2, 4, and 6 is more suitable. 63

64 which is 4.1 % higher than that of Cases 1 and 2. (4) By comparing the polarization curve of the optimized case 64

65 (2) By comparing the oxygen concentration distribution map of and the average current density of each case under working 65

66 the optimization case, it is found that the setting of the voltages of 0.5 V and 0.6 V, it was found that increasing the 66

9
 Electrochemistry, (in press) 1–10

4. J. K. Liu and Y. S. Ma, Adv. Eng. Softw., 100, 161 (2016).

UNCORRECTED PROOF
1 inclination has a better effect on improving the average current 1
5. A. Vogel and P. Junker, Struct. Multidiscipl. Optim., 63, 95 (2021).
2 density than setting obstacles. Moreover, under working 2
6. Z. Y. Zhang, Y. Zhao, B. X. Du, X. Q. Chen, and W. Yao, Struct. Multidiscipl.
3 voltages of 0.5 V and 0.6 V, Case 2 has the best overall effect. Optim., 62, 3071 (2020). 3

4 According to the set objective equation, algorithm optimization 7. J. P. Wang, J. Wu, and R. Westermann, Struct. Multidiscipl. Optim., 65, 92 (2022). 4

5 of channel structure can be achieved, and the optimal distribution 8. P. Gomes and R. Palacios, Struct. Multidiscipl. Optim., 62, 2117 (2020). 5

6 case can be found in the design space of uniformly distributed 9. N. Pollini, Renew. Energy, 195, 1015 (2022). 6
10. F. Mathieu-Potvin and L. Gosselin, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 39, 7382 (2014).
7 materials. The constraint equation supports multiple design 11. Q. Xun and Y. J. Liu, Int. J. Energy Res., 43, 4807 (2019).
7

8 variables, making it easy for designers to optimize the battery 12. C. Kim and H. Sun, Int. J. Automot. Technol., 13, 783 (2012). 8

9 performance of PEMFC. As an algorithm optimization, topology 13. Z. M. Zhang, J. Zhang, and T. Zhang, Sustainability (Basel), 14, 4730 (2022). 9

10 optimization can obtain the optimization results more scientifically 14. R. Behrou, A. Pizzolato, and A. Forner-Cuenca, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 135, 10
72 (2019).
11 and save the design time and calculation cost of researchers. 11
15. T. Nakanishi, K. Koseki, S. Maruyama, and H. Shundo, Solid electrolyte fuel cell,
12 Therefore, the application of topology optimization in PEMFC has US, US4910100 A, Mar 20 (1990). 12

13 great room for development. 16. R. Diethelm, J. Brun, and B. Barp, Module for a fuel cell battery: US (1993). 13

14 17. E. Batawi, High temperature fuel cell: US (1997). 14

15 CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement 18. S. Alexander, S. John, J. Markus, and H. Philipet, Fuel cell battery with integrated 15
heat exchanger, EP, EP1347529B1, May 7 (2008).
16 16
19. D. Bruno and K. Martin, Fuel cell battery with afterburning at the periphery of a
17 Cheng Qu: Conceptualization (Lead), Data curation (Lead), Formal analysis (Lead), cell stack, US, US6432567B1, Aug 13 (2022). 17

18
Methodology (Lead), Software (Lead), Validation (Lead), Writing – original draft 20. B. Doggwiler and E. Batawi, Fuel cell battery with a stack of planar cells, US, 18
(Lead), Writing – review & editing (Equal)
19 AU771489B2, Mar 25 (2004). 19
Minggang Zheng: Funding acquisition (Lead), Resources (Equal), Writing – review &
21. S. Cano-Andrade, A. Hernandez-Guerrero, M. R. von Spakovsky, C. E. Damian-
20 editing (Equal) 20
Ascencio, and J. C. Rubio-Arana, Energy, 35, 920 (2010).
21 21
22. G. Vladimir, B. Frano, and N. K. Jay, Fuel cell collector plates with improved
22 Conflict of Interest mass transfer channels, US, US6551736B1, Apr 22 (2003). 22

23 23. I. Perez-Raya, A. Hernandez-Guerrero, F. Elizalde-Blancas, D. Juarez-Robles, and 23

24 The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. L. Almanza-Huerta, Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical 24
Engineering Congress and Exposition - 2010, Vol. 5, p. 899 (2012).
25 25
24. B. R. Friess and M. Hoorfar, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 37, 7719 (2012).
26 Funding 25. Z. H. Zhang and M. G. Zheng, Energy Source Part A, 44, 8266 (2022). 26

27 26. Comsol multiphysics, v. 5.3a, comsol ab, Stockholm, Sweden (2017). URL: www. 27

28 Jinan ‘20 New Universities’ Introduction Innovation Team Project: 2021GXRC075 comsol.com 28
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