Parameterization of gdl liquid water front propagation and channel accumulation for anode purge scheduling in fuel cells

This paper parameterizes the 0-dimensional model of liquid water front evolution associated with: (1) water transport through the membrane, and (2) accumulation and transport of liquid water in the Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) originally presented in [1]. We add here vapor transport into and out of the channels and liquid water removal from the anode channel during a purge. This completely describes a model for purge scheduling, to avoid anode channel plugging, and to prevent over-drying of the membrane. The model is parameterized using two tunable and one experimentally identified parameter to match the rate of liquid water accumulation in the anode channel that was observed via neutron imaging of an operational 53 cm² PEMFC. Simulation results for the GDL and Membrane model augmented with a lumped channel model are presented and compared with measured liquid water values.