Abstract
Targeted, pre-determined values of spatially-resolved liquid water saturation is achieved in the pore networks of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell gas diffusion layers (GDL). An inlet selection algorithm is presented, where the local saturation of the overall substrate, channel region, and land region match the prescribed input values (within a tolerance of 2% absolute error). With this algorithm, we conduct a novel, comprehensive characterization of the influence of local saturation on local oxygen transport properties using 1721 unique saturation conditions within the GDL. The oxygen transport properties of the GDL are significantly affected by the spatial distribution of liquid water. We find that liquid water accumulation in the channel region leads to an increase in the oxygen transport resistance in the channel region of the substrate and overall substrate. The channel region saturation is a better predictor of substrate transport properties than the substrate saturation alone. The correlation between the land region saturation and the oxygen transport resistance of the substrate is weak and depends on the spatial distribution of liquid water in the land region. Land region saturation only has a strong influence on the oxygen transport resistance in the land region of the substrate.
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