Numerical investigation on the feasibility of metal foam as flow field in alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cell.

• Feasibility of MF in AAEMFC is investigated by numerical study for the first time. • The model is validated with experimental data from both the literature and this study. • The MF improves the performance significantly, especially at high current density. • Water transport and distribution are analyzed to explain the performance improvement. • MF prevents the AAEMFC from flooding in anode and drying out in cathode. Metal foam (MF) material is a promising alternative in fuel cell for its extremely porous structure, high electrical conductivity, controllable permeability and strong mechanical strength. However, there are seldom applications of MF flow field in alkaline anion exchange membrane (AAEM) fuel cell so far. Therefore, a three-dimensional (3D) multi-phase numerical model is implemented to investigate the feasibility of MF flow field in AAEM fuel cell and validated with experimental data from both the literature and this study. The performance of AAEM fuel cell with MF flow field is compared with that with traditional serpentine flow field. The simulation results show that MF flow field is able to improve the performance of AAEM fuel cell significantly, especially at higher current density where the concentration loss is dominant. According to analysis of transports and distributions of reactants and water (including liquid water, membrane water, and water vapor), the MF flow field is proven to be beneficial to membrane hydration, anode water removal, cathode water utilization, and reactant distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]