One of the most important factors in reducing the lifetime of PEM fuel cells is heterogeneous current distribution on membrane surface. Since flow field plays an important role in reactants distribution and water depletion and consequently current distribution, hence, in this paper, with development of a lumped model, water and current distributions on membrane surface were evaluated in two different designs. In this model, the flow field is divided into equal segments and connection between segments are created through flow field pattern. In both designs, flow field of anode side was serpentine, but on cathode side, parallel and serpentine flow field were used in first and second design, respectively. Simulations were carried out for different input relative humidity from 0 to 100 in both sides. The results showed that flow field had no significant effect on polarization curve and the second design had a little better performance in high current density. Also, in terms of current distribution, the second design shows a better uniformity, so that in the first design in fully saturated inlet condition, difference between the percentage of current generated between the first and last segments is about 1.57 percent which recehes to 1.45 percent in the second case.

Keywords: PEM fuel cell, Lumped method, Water management, Current distribution

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