scholarly journals Insights on the interaction of serpentine channels and gas diffusion layer in an operating polymer electrolyte fuel cell: Numerical modeling across scales

2021 ◽  
Vol 181 ◽  
pp. 121859
Author(s):  
Meysam Khatoonabadi ◽  
Mohammad Amin Safi ◽  
Nikolaos I. Prasianakis ◽  
Jörg Roth ◽  
John Mantzaras ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Modeling ◽  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte ◽  
Diffusion Layer ◽  
Gas Diffusion Layer ◽  
Gas Diffusion ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell

scholarly journals On the hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of the cathode gas diffusion layer in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell

2013 ◽  
Vol 469 (2154) ◽  
pp. 20120695 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Vynnycky ◽  
A. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte ◽  
Diffusion Layer ◽  
Gas Diffusion Layer ◽  
Gas Diffusion ◽  
Cell Performance ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell ◽  
Liquid Region ◽  
Catalytic Layer ◽  
Two Phase

An anomaly in the modelling of two-phase flow in the porous cathode gas diffusion layer (GDL) of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell is investigated asymptotically and numerically. Although not commented on previously in literature, the generalized Darcy model used most commonly leads to the surprising prediction that a hydrophilic GDL can lead to better cell performance, in terms of current density, than a hydrophobic one. By analysing a reduced one-dimensional steady-state model and identifying the capillary number as a small dimensionless parameter, we find a potential flaw in the original model, associated with the constitutive relation linking the capillary pressure and the pressures of the wetting and non-wetting phases. Correcting this, we find that, whereas a hydrophilic GDL can sustain a two-phase (gas/liquid) region near the water-producing catalytic layer and gas phase only region further away, a hydrophobic GDL cannot; furthermore, hydrophobic GDLs are found to lead to better cell performance than hydrophilic GDLs, as is indeed experimentally the case.

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