Investigation of liquid water heterogeneities in large area PEM fuel cells using a pseudo-3D multiphysics model

Abstract

Effective management of the liquid water and heat produced in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is necessary to increase both its performance and durability. In previous works, a pseudo-3D physic-based model of heat and water transport in fuel cells was developed and has been validated against experimental temperature and current density data. In this study, liquid water measurement obtained from neutron imaging tests is compared with numerical results. The model is able to predict qualitatively the presence of liquid water with a good accuracy taking into account the real Bipolar Plate (BP) design. Based on the reliability of the predictions at this first order in-plane space scale, the model has been used to compute the thickness of liquid water through the plane of the cell, in the different components of the stack, Gas Channel (GC) or Gas Diffusion Electrode (GDE). Our two-phase flow formulation has also been compared to more classical phase-separated two-phase flow model. A good accordance is observed for low saturations. The good agreement between predictions and measurement results supports the capability of our model to be employed in predictive control strategies or to design innovative Bipolar Plate (BP) at lower cost compared to experimental tests.