Experimental characterization of in-plane permeability of gas diffusion layers

Recent studies indicate that PEM fuel cell performance may be strongly influenced by in-plane permeability of the gas diffusion layer (GDL). The current study employs a radial flow technique for obtaining in-plane permeability of GDLs, using either gas or liquid as the impregnating fluid. A model has been developed and experimentally verified to account for compressibility effects when permeability measurements are conducted using a gas. Permeability experiments are performed on samples of woven, non-woven, and carbon fiber-based GDL at various levels of compression using air as the impregnating fluid. Woven and non-woven samples are measured to have significantly higher in-plane permeability compared to carbon fiber paper at similar solid volume fractions.