Numerical investigation of water droplet dynamics in a PEMFC microchannel

Author

Qin, Yanzhou ; Du, Qing ; Yin, Yan ; Li, Xianguo

Author_Institution

State Key Lab. of Engines, Tianjin Univ., Tianjin, China

fYear

2011

fDate

24-26 June 2011

Firstpage

4206

Lastpage

4209

Abstract

The mobility of a water droplet inside a straight micro-channel of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been investigated through numerical simulation using volume of fluid (VOF) method to study the effects of surface wettabilities of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) and flow channel as well as the gravity on water dynamic behavior. The results show that a combination of hydrophobic GDL surface with hydrophilic channel walls is beneficial to water discharging and gas transport through the channel. The gravity also has a significant effect on the water transport characteristics in the microchannel.

Keywords

drops; hydrophilicity; hydrophobicity; microchannel flow; numerical analysis; proton exchange membrane fuel cells; wetting; PEMFC microchannel; flow channel; fluid method volume; gas diffusion layer; gas transport; hydrophilic channel wall; hydrophobic GDL surface; numerical simulation; proton exchange membrane fuel cell; surface wettability; water discharging; water droplet dynamics behavior; water droplet mobility; water transport characteristics; Cathodes; Fuel cells; Gravity; Manifolds; Microchannel; Protons; Water; PEM fuel cell; VOF model; water management; wettability;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Remote Sensing, Environment and Transportation Engineering (RSETE), 2011 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Nanjing

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9172-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RSETE.2011.5965257

Filename

5965257