Characterization of the response of microfluidic fuel cells to complex 3D fluid dynamics patterns

微流体燃料电池对复杂 3D 流体动力学模式响应的表征

• 批准号: 220176835
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Christian Joachim Kähler
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Strömungsmechanik und Aerodynamik (LRT-7)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-31 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/220176835?language=en
• 关键词: Characterization; response; microfluidic; fuel; cells

Microfluidic fuel cells (MFCs) are a recent class of membraneless, miniaturized fuel cells in which the two streams of fuel and oxidant flow in parallel in a microchannel without turbulent mixing. Due to their high future potential in several key branches of industry (cell phones, PDAs, clinical diagnostic tests), the optimization and improvement of their performance is currently an important task. One possibility to enhance the energy density and fuel utilization of MFCs in an effective and inexpensive way is the use of 3D flows, in which velocity components perpendicular to the main flow direction are present. Although this concept has been successfully applied in simple configurations, a conclusive analysis that could reveal the full potential of this approach and show the optimized configurations is currently unavailable. The proposed project intends to make use of advanced volumetric microscopic velocimetry methods to systematically examine the response of MFCs to the 3D flow patterns. The analysis will be carried out on innovative MFC architectures with curved geometries, able to cover a wide range of 3D flow patterns. The proposed project intends to answer the following fundamental questions related to this approach: (i) how do the power and fuel utilization of MFCs scale with the magnitude of secondary flows? (ii) What is the role played by the shape and position the fuel/oxidant interface? (iii) Can complex 3D patterns be used to consistently increase the performance of MFCs?

微流控燃料电池（MFC）是近年来出现的一类无膜、小型化的燃料电池，其中燃料和氧化剂两股流在微通道中平行流动而没有湍流混合。由于其在几个关键行业（手机，PDA，临床诊断测试）中的高未来潜力，其性能的优化和改进是当前的一项重要任务。以有效且廉价的方式提高MFC的能量密度和燃料利用率的一种可能性是使用3D流，其中存在垂直于主流动方向的速度分量。虽然这一概念已成功地应用于简单的配置，一个结论性的分析，可以揭示这种方法的全部潜力，并显示优化的配置目前是不可用的。本研究拟利用先进的体积显微测速方法，系统地研究MFC对三维流态的响应。分析将在具有弯曲几何形状的创新MFC架构上进行，能够覆盖广泛的3D流型。拟议的项目旨在回答与这一方法有关的以下基本问题：（一）微生物燃料电池的电力和燃料利用如何与二次流量的大小成比例？(ii)燃料/氧化剂界面的形状和位置起什么作用？(iii)复杂的3D图案能否用于持续提高MFC的性能？