Title :
Effects of gas diffusion layer characteristic on the water-protect performance of low-humidity PEMFC
Author :
Wang Fangfang ; Luo Maji ; Zhang Xin
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Automotive Eng., Wuhan Univ. of Technol., Wuhan, China
Abstract :
The gas diffusion layer (GDL) of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) plays a prominent effect on the water balance inside the fuel cell. A two-dimensional, steady-state, two-phase model for a PEMFC is developed to investigate the effects of GDL characteristics on the water-protect performance of the fuel cell. Analysis of the water-protect performance of low humidity PEMFC indicates that in the condition of saturated anode inlet humidification and 25% of the cathode inlet humidification, the smaller the porosity, the better the water-protect performance of the fuel cell. The thicker the GDL, the better the water protect capability. The fuel cell with smaller mean aperture has higher water content in the membrane. The stronger hydrophilicity in the GDL plays a certain role of holding the water.
Keywords :
hydrophilicity; proton exchange membrane fuel cells; PEMFC; gas diffusion layer; hydrophilicity; proton exchange membrane fuel cell; saturated anode inlet humidification; water protect performance; Automotive engineering; Fuel cells; Fuels; Humidity; Materials; Protons; Water resources; Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL); PEMFC; low humidity; water-protect performance;
Conference_Titel :
Electric Information and Control Engineering (ICEICE), 2011 International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Wuhan
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-8036-4
DOI :
10.1109/ICEICE.2011.5777071