Abstract
A powerful approach to investigate two-phase interactions and liquid interface tracking has been developed in a 3-D proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). By introducing Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) algorithm combined with detail fluid flow, heat and mass transport and electrochemistry processes, the real-time water liquid motion in the channels and accumulation in the porous media can be described at different time instants during operation. The simulation shows that the presence of liquid water in the channels causes a significant increase of pressure drop and uneven distribution of flow field in the cell. Moreover, liquid water located in some regions of the gas diffusion layers (GDLs) hinders the mass transport of reactant gases and prevents the reactions taking place in the catalyst layers, resulting in a degradation of current density and then severely affects the PEMFC performance.
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