Abstract
At normal operating temperatures (below 100 °C), the water in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is in the form of a mixture of gas and liquid phases. The content of water guarantees that the membrane has good proton conductivity, but it may also block the transmission of the reaction gas to the catalytic reaction sites. Based on the single straight channel of the PEMFC, the water content of the model at various voltages and the water distribution of the different parts are studied. The results indicate that the amount of water in the model generally increases with the reduction in the voltage. When the voltage is set from 1.1 V to 0.7 V, the increase in the amplitude of the water content is higher than 0.7 V–0.4 V, and the water content is highest at 0.5 V. Under each voltage, the largest water content occurs in the gas diffusion layer, the second one occurs in the channel, the third one occurs in the proton exchange membrane, and the water content in the catalyst layer is lowest.
Highlights
The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is widely studied by scholars because of its compactness, zero emission, low operating temperature, adjustable power outputs, and quick start.1 The proton exchange membrane is an important part in the entire fuel cell in which the proton conductivity of the membrane is proportional to the water content in the membrane, so the membrane must maintain a good wetting condition
The largest water content occurs in the gas diffusion layer, the second one occurs in the channel, the third one occurs in the proton exchange membrane, and the water content in the catalyst layer is lowest
Anyanwu et al.24 numerically studied the droplet dynamics inside a sinusoidal channel for the PEMFC by the volume of fluid (VOF) method and found that three significant parameters of the sinusoidal channel played an important role in droplet removal
Summary
The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is widely studied by scholars because of its compactness, zero emission, low operating temperature, adjustable power outputs, and quick start. The proton exchange membrane is an important part in the entire fuel cell in which the proton conductivity of the membrane is proportional to the water content in the membrane, so the membrane must maintain a good wetting condition. Jiao et al. achieved the transmission characteristics of liquid water in the parallel serpentine channel using the VOF method and raised some problems of water management in the fuel cell. Chen et al. investigated the influence of the surface microstructure of the gas diffusion layer on liquid water transmission by using the VOF method. He et al. raised a 2D, two-phase, multicomponent transport model in order to study the influences of the gas and liquid water hydrodynamics on the performance of the air cathode of PEMFCs. Wang et al. applied a two-phase, multicomponent mixture model to simulate the cathode operation in the porous cathode. It is necessary to study the water content and distribution of the fuel cell and analyze the effect of water distribution on the performance of the PEMFC, providing the reference data for water management
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