Abstract
Water management of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is crucial to maintain high performance and stable operation. The flow channel is an indispensable part of PEMFCs, which allows the reactant gases to flow into the system, and the liquid water to be removed from the fuel cells. A transient 3D model based on volume of fluid methodology is used to study the dynamic characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow in a PEMFC flow channel. The structure of the flow channel, the wettability of channel surfaces, the air inlet velocity, the dimensions of the water droplets, and the effect of phase transition are considered to obtain the optimal solution. The results show that the water droplet transport process is seriously affected by the wettability of the channel surfaces. A modified surface design with varied static surface contact angle could perform the detachment without external force with an appropriate initial velocity. Besides, phase transitions could seriously influence the form and the distribution of water existing in the channel.
Highlights
proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) represent one of the most promising clean energy technologies [1,2,3,4]
Investigations of water transport in PEMFC are important to guide the design of fuel cells
Lottin et al [11] used a pseudo-2D model of a PEMFC including mass transport limitations during the process of electrode flooding, and the limiting current defined by the appearance of liquid in the cell could be determined
Summary
Good water management is important to maintain high performance and stable operation for fuel cell commercial use. Humidified and reaction product water [5] could become supersaturated inside the fuel cell due to consumption of reactant gases, and excess water would cause flooding inside the fuel cell, which leads to performance losses and component damage [6,7], and the safety issue of cell reversal. Investigations of water transport in PEMFC are important to guide the design of fuel cells. A number of studies [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15] have discussed the fuel cell water transport issue by numerical simulation and experimental research. Liu et al [14]
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