Influence of obstacle configuration on electrolyte flow in serpentine flow fields for redox flow batteries

i

This article has been updated. A Correction to this article was published on .

i

The Original Article was published on

i

The Original Article was published on

i

This article has been updated

i

This article was retracted on

i

This article has been updated

Abstract

In this study, a three-dimensional numerical model was developed to investigate the influence of obstacles on the hydrodynamic behavior of a serpentine flow field. Various obstacle geometries (rectangular, trapezoidal, triangular, and cylindrical), quantities (1–3 blocks), and positions (straight vs. curved channel sections) were systematically analyzed. Results show that rectangular obstacles enhance mean velocity but significantly increase pressure drop and reduce flow uniformity. In contrast, trapezoidal and cylindrical shapes offer a more balanced tradeoff, achieving improved uniformity and flow enhancement with moderate hydraulic penalties. Increasing obstacle number improves electrolyte velocity uniformity across all cases, though diminishing returns are observed beyond two blocks. Importantly, placing obstacles in curved sections of the serpentine field yields up to 9% higher uniformity compared to straight placements, without increasing pressure loss- leveraging pre-existing low-velocity regions to enhance distribution. These findings align with previous literature and highlight that optimized obstacle shape, number, and positioning can significantly improve mass transport and flow distribution in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). To complement the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, an artificial neural network (ANN) was trained to predict pressure drop using key geometric and flow features as inputs. The ANN demonstrated excellent agreement with numerical results and reduced the computational time required to obtain the results by 6 orders of magnitude.

Keywords

vanadium redox flow battery / flow field / obstruction / numerical model / serpentine / pressure drop

CHANGE HISTORY

A Correction to this paper has been published:
https://doi.org

The Retraction Note was updated to reflect reception of statements of disagreement from all authors.

This article has been retracted.Please see the Retraction Notice for more detail:
https://doi.org

References

[1] A. A. Kadhem, N. I. A. Wahab, I. Aris, J. Jasni, A. N. Abdalla, Y. Matsukawa, Reliability assessment of generating systems with wind power penetration via BPSO, Int. J. Adv. Sci., Eng. Inf. Technol., 7 (2017), 1248-1254. https://doi.org/10.18517/ijaseit.7.4.2311

[2] O. Smith, O. Cattell, E. Farcot, R. D. O’Dea, K. I. Hopcraft, The effect of renewable energy incorporation on power grid stability and resilience, Sci. Adv., 8 (2022), eabj6734. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj6734

[3] T. S. Le, T. N. Nguyen, D. K. Bui, T. D. Ngo, Optimal sizing of renewable energy storage: A techno-economic analysis of hydrogen, battery and hybrid systems considering degradation and seasonal storage, Appl. Energy, 336 (2023), 120817. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120817

[4] M. O. Bamgbopa, A. Fetyan, M. Vagin, A. A. Adelodun, Towards eco-friendly redox flow batteries with all bio-sourced cell components, J. Energy Storage, 50 (2022), 104352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2022.104352

[5] Z. Huang, A. Mu, L. Wu, B. Yang, Y. Qian, J. Wang, Comprehensive Analysis of Critical Issues in All-Vanadium Redox Flow Battery, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 10 (2022), 7786-7810. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c01375

[6] A. Aluko, A. Knight, A review on vanadium redox flow battery storage systems for large-scale power systems application, IEEE Access, 11 (2023), 13773-13793. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3243800

[7] K. Lourenssen, J. Williams, F. Ahmadpour, R. Clemmer, S. Tasnim, Vanadium redox flow batteries: A comprehensive review, J. Energy Storage, 25 (2019), 100844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2019.100844

[8] K. Knehr, E. Agar, C. Dennison, A. Kalidindi, E. Kumbur, A transient vanadium flow battery model incorporating vanadium crossover and water transport through the membrane, J. Electrochem. Soc., 159 (2012), A1446-A1459. https://doi.org/10.1149/2.017209jes

[9] W. M. Carvalho, L. Cassayre, D. Quaranta, F. Chauvet, R. El-Hage, T. Tzedakis, et al., Stability of highly supersaturated vanadium electrolyte solution and characterization of precipitated phases for vanadium redox flow battery, J. Energy Chem., 61 (2021), 436-445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jechem.2021.01.040

[10] F. Rahman, M. Skyllas-Kazacos, Vanadium redox battery: Positive half-cell electrolyte studies, J. Power Sources, 189 (2009), 1212-1219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2008.12.110

[11] S. Maurya, P. T. Nguyen, Y. S. Kim, Q. Kang, R. Mukundan, Effect of flow field geometry on operating current density, capacity and performance of vanadium redox flow battery, J. Power Sources, 404 (2018), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2018.09.093

[12] Z. Huang, A. Mu, Flow field design and performance analysis of vanadium redox flow battery, Ionics, 27 (2021), 5207-5218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-021-04213-8

[13] J. Wang, A. Mu, B. Yang, W. Wang, Y. Wang, Enhancing vanadium flow battery performance via trapezoidal channel design: An experimental validation and parametric investigation, J. Energy Storage, 119 (2025), 116346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2025.116346

[14] J. Ramesh, M. Premalatha, D. R. Sudhakar, G. A. Pathanjali, M. Raja, A novel flow design to reduce pressure drop and enhance performance of Vanadium Redox Flow Battery, J. Energy Storage, 108 (2025), 115030. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2024.115030

[15] Z. Huang, A. Mu, L. Wu, H. Wang, Vanadium redox flow batteries: Flow field design and flow rate optimization, J. Energy Storage, 45 (2022), 103526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2021.103526

[16] M. Messaggi, P. Canzi, R. Mereu, A. Baricci, F. Inzoli, A. Casalegno, et al., Analysis of flow field design on vanadium redox flow battery performance: Development of 3D computational fluid dynamic model and experimental validation, Appl. Energy, 228 (2018), 1057-1070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.06.148

[17] Q. Xu, T. S. Zhao, C. Zhang, Performance of a vanadium redox flow battery with and without flow fields, Electrochim. Acta, 142 (2014), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2014.07.059

[18] Y. Wang, M. Li, L. Hao, Three-dimensional modeling study of all-vanadium redox flow batteries with the serpentine and interdigitated flow fields, J. Electroanal. Chem., 918 (2022), 116460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelechem.2022.116460

[19] M. Yue, Q. Zheng, F. Xing, H. Zhang, X. Li, X. Ma, Flow field design and optimization of high power density vanadium flow batteries: A novel trapezoid flow battery, AIChE J., 64 (2018), 782-795. https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.15959

[20] J. Lee, J. Kim, H. Park, Numerical simulation of the power-based efficiency in vanadium redox flow battery with different serpentine channel size, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 44 (2019), 29483-29492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.05.013

[21] E. Ali, J. Kim, H. Park, Numerical analysis of modified channel widths of serpentine and interdigitated channels for the discharge performance of vanadium redox flow batteries, J. Energy Storage, 53 (2022), 105099. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2022.105099

[22] R. Gundlapalli, S. Jayanti, Effect of channel dimensions of serpentine flow fields on the performance of a vanadium redox flow battery, J. Energy Storage, 23 (2019), 148-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2019.03.014

[23] J. Sun, B. Liu, M. Zheng, Y. Luo, Z. Yu, Serpentine flow field with changing rib width for enhancing electrolyte penetration uniformity in redox flow batteries, J. Energy Storage, 49 (2022), 104135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2022.104135

[24] Z. Guo, J. Sun, X. Fan, T. Zhao, Numerical modeling of a convection-enhanced flow field for high-performance redox flow batteries, J. Power Sources, 583 (2023), 233540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2023.233540

[25] Z. Huang, A. Mu, L. Wu, H. Wang, Y. Zhang, Electrolyte flow optimization and performance metrics analysis of vanadium redox flow battery for large-scale stationary energy storage, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 46 (2021), 31952-31962. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.225

[26] L. Pan, J. Sun, H. Qi, M. Han, L. Chen, J. Xu, et al., Along-flow-path gradient flow field enabling uniform distributions of reactants for redox flow batteries, J. Power Sources, 570 (2023), 233012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2023.233012

[27] B. Akuzum, Y. C. Alparslan, N. C. Robinson, E. Agar, E. C. Kumbur, Obstructed flow field designs for improved performance in vanadium redox flow batteries, J. Appl. Electrochem., 49 (2019), 551-561. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-019-01306-1

[28] M. Messaggi, C. Gambaro, A. Casalegno, M. Zago, Development of innovative flow fields in a vanadium redox flow battery: Design of channel obstructions with the aid of 3D computational fluid dynamic model and experimental validation through locally-resolved polarization curves, J. Power Sources, 526 (2022), 231155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2022.231155

[29] Y. Liu, Z. Huang, X. Xie, Y. Liu, J. Wu, Z. Guo, et al., Redox flow battery: Flow field design based on bionic mechanism with different obstructions, Chem. Eng. J., 498 (2024), 155663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.155663

[30] J. Martínez-López, U. Fernández-Gamiz, E. Sánchez-Díez, A. Beloki-Arrondo, Í. Ortega-Fernández, Enhancing mass transport in organic redox flow batteries through electrode obstacle design, Batteries, 11 (2025). https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries11010029

[31] Q. Wang, Z. G. Qu, Z. Y. Jiang, W. W. Yang, Experimental study on the performance of a vanadium redox flow battery with non-uniformly compressed carbon felt electrode, Appl. Energy, 213 (2018), 293-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.01.047

[32] M. Y. Lu, Y. H. Jiao, X. Y. Tang, W. W. Yang, M. Ye, Q. Xu, Blocked serpentine flow field with enhanced species transport and improved flow distribution for vanadium redox flow battery, J. Energy Storage, 35 (2021), 102284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2021.102284

[33] K. Portal-Porras, U. Fernandez-Gamiz, E. Zulueta, R. Garcia-Fernandez, O. Irigaray, Parametric study of vortex generators on a fin-and-tube heat exchanger, Energy Sources, Part A, 45 (2023), 10051-10072. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2023.2242809

[34] J. Martínez-López, K. Portal-Porras, U. Fernández-Gamiz, E. Sánchez-Díez, J. Olarte, I. Jonsson, Voltage and overpotential prediction of vanadium redox flow batteries with artificial neural networks, Batteries, 10 (2024). https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries10010023

[35] M. T. Hagan, M. B. Menhaj, Training feedforward networks with the Marquardt algorithm, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks, 5 (1994), 989-993. https://doi.org/10.1109/72.329697

[36] B. G. Kermani, S. S. Schiffman, H. T. Nagle, Performance of the Levenberg-Marquardt neural network training method in electronic nose applications, Sens. Actuators, B, 110 (2005), 13-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2005.01.008

[37] MATLAB , 2025. Available from: https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html.

[38] Deep Learning Toolbox, 2025. Available from: https://www.mathworks.com/products/deep-learning.html.