Numerical study of the performance of all vanadium redox flow battery by changing the cell structure

Previous studies have indicated that the bipolar plates with flow channels can improve the performance of all vanadium redox flow battery efficiently. However, the addition of flow channels into the surface of bipolar plates results in the complication of bipolar plate structure, which leads to the increase of contact resistance caused by the diminution of contact area, and aggravation of bipolar plate corrosion in anode. In the present work, a new cell structure by adjusting the relative position of flow channel and electrode is proposed and the properties of the new proposed cell structure are numerically studied. Results show that the new modified battery structure can increase the effective area of membrane and decrease the internal ionic resistance from the anodic electrode to the cathodic electrode. The modified battery structure exhibits a higher ability on the homogeneous distribution of the current and potential and a lower local overpotential as well as a higher voltage efficiency compared with the original battery structure.