Study on heat transfer performance of cooling channels in proton exchange membrane fuel cells based on topology optimization

•Multi-objective function topology optimization model of PEMFC cooling plate is built.•Influencing factors of topology optimization results of cooling plates are explored.•At the volume fraction of 0.5, the cooling plate has optimum cooling performance.•Temperature weight coefficient affects the performance of cooling plate remarkably.•Non-uniform coolant flow is detrimental to cooling plate performance improvement.