Thermal Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Two-Phase Flow at the Anode Microchannel of Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Abstract

Carbon dioxide bubble removal in anode diffusion layer is a critical technique in micro direct methanol fuel cells (μDMFCs) [1, 2]. By deriving a thermal lattice-Boltzmann model, we investigate the hydrophilic, thermal and geometric effects on the two-phase flow (CO2 bubbles in methanol-water solution) in a microchannel of a μDMFC. The dimension of the example microchannel is similar to the diffusion layer. The length is 15.9 μm while the width (or height) is 1.5 μm, which are equivalent to the averaged pore size of the porous diffusion layer. A two-dimensional, nine-velocity (D2Q9) thermal lattice-Boltzmann model (TLBM) was derived in this paper.