This study proposes a novel flow-field design strategy that incorporates porous inserts into the bipolar plate (BP) flow channels to address flooding and improve the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The BPs were fabricated by maintaining the traditional flow-field structure while varying the number and arrangement of melamine foam inserts, with the electrochemical performance changes analyzed comparatively. The findings revealed that the configuration featuring five porous inserts achieved the highest performance enhancement, with a peak power density increase of approximately 13.4% compared to the conventional cell. This improvement is attributed to localized pressure gradients created by the porous inserts, which facilitated transverse gas transport toward the gas diffusion layer and reduced flooding in the flow channels. However, excessive insertion resulted in increased flow resistance and mass transport limitations, leading to performance degradation. The study also confirmed the impact of insert arrangement on PEMFC performance. Overall, the introduction of porous inserts into BP flow channels, without the need for additional machining processes, offers an effective method for managing water and gas transport in PEMFCs, providing valuable insights for flow-field optimization and the development of high-performance fuel cell systems.
