Investigation of the operational behavior of fuel cells is required to assess their
overall performance and dynamic stability. This research paper describes the use
of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in investigating the effect of
incorporating a separate adjacent cooling channel and heat spreader in a fuel
cell. The objective of the study was to find the effect of adding coolant channel
and heat spreader to the fuel cell. This model was run using different variables,
namely pressure, voltage, and fuel flow rate. The study shows performance of the
fuel cell regarding temperature changes, distribution, and water mass fraction
changes at a common plane across all the models. The results indicate that the
presence of a separate cooling channel and a cooling channel with a heat
spreader reduce the local temperatures on the cathode side by about 10°C and
12°C, respectively. The results of the model cells were enhanced by the
introduction of cooling channels and heat spreaders.