A Study on Flow Characteristics and Flow Uniformity for the Efficient Design of a Flow Frame in a Redox Flow Battery

As global environmental problems are worsening, the efficiency of storage systems for renewable energy are gaining importance. The redox flow battery (RFB), a promising energy storage system (ESS), is a device that generates or stores electricity through reduction&#8722;oxidation reactions between active materials constituting electrolytes. Herein, we proposed a flow frame design that reduces flow resistance in the flow path and causes uniform flow distribution in the electrode to develop an efficient redox flow battery. Through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental verification, we investigated the flow characteristics and flow uniformity inside the conventional redox flow battery cell. An analysis of the flow characteristics of the conventional flow frame revealed a non-uniform distribution of the flow discharged to the electrodes, owing to the complex (branched) flow path geometry of the inlet channel. To address this problem, we proposed a new flow frame design that removed and integrated bifurcations in the flow path. This new design significantly improved flow uniformity parameters, such as the symmetry coefficient (<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>C</mi> <mrow> <mi>s</mi> <mi>y</mi> <mi>m</mi> </mrow> </msub> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>), variability range coefficient (<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>R</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>), and maximum flow rate deviation (<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>D</mi> <mi>m</mi> </msub> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>). Ultimately, we decreased the pressure drop by 15.3% by reducing the number of flow path bifurcations and chevron repositioning.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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