scholarly journals Effect of Compression on the Effective Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Contact Resistance in PEM Fuel Cell Gas Diffusion Layers

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Sadeghi ◽  
Ned Djilali ◽  
Majid Bahrami
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Contact Resistance ◽  
Effective Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Thermal Contact Resistance ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Pem Fuel Cell ◽  
Gas Diffusion ◽  
Analytical Models

Heat transfer through the gas diffusion layer (GDL) of a PEM fuel cell is a key process in the design and operation a PEM fuel cell. The analysis of this process requires determination of the effective thermal conductivity as well as the thermal contact resistance between the GDL and adjacent surfaces/layers. In the present study, a guarded-hot-plate apparatus has been designed and built to measure the effective thermal conductivity and thermal contact resistance in GDLs under vacuum and atmospheric pressure. Toray carbon papers with the porosity of 78% and different thicknesses are used in the experiments under a wide range of compressive loads. Moreover, novel analytical models are developed for the effective thermal conductivity and thermal contact resistance and compared against the present experimental data. Results show good agreements between the experimental data and the analytical models. It is observed that the thermal contact resistance is the dominant component of the total thermal resistance and neglecting this phenomenon may result in enormous errors.

scholarly journals In-Plane Thermal Conductivity of PEM Fuel Cell Gas Diffusion Layers

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Sadeghi ◽  
Ned Djilali ◽  
Majid Bahrami
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Effective Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Pem Fuel Cell ◽  
Gas Diffusion ◽  
Carbon Paper ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Diffusion Layers ◽  
Wide Range

Heat transfer through the gas diffusion layer (GDL) is a key process in the design and operation of a PEM fuel cell. The analysis of this process requires determination of the effective thermal conductivity. This transport property differs significantly in the through-plane and in-plane directions due to the anisotropic micro-structure of the GDL. In the present study, a novel test bed that allows the separation of in-plane effective thermal conductivity and thermal contact resistance in GDLs is described. Measurements are performed using Toray carbon paper TGP-H-120 samples for a range of PTFE content at a mean temperature of 65–70°C. The measurements are complemented by a compact analytical model that achieves good agreement with the experimental data. The in-plane effective thermal conductivity is found to be about 12 times higher than the through-plane conductivity and remains approximately constant, k ≈ 17.5 W/mK, over a wide range of PTFE content.

Effective Thermal Conductivity of Composites Reinforced with Curvilinearly Anisotropic Inclusions with Kapitza Contact Resistance

2006 ◽  
Vol 306-308 ◽  
pp. 775-780
Author(s):  
Tung Yang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Contact Resistance ◽  
Closed Form ◽  
Effective Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Thermal Contact Resistance ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Transversely Isotropic ◽  
Closed Form Expression ◽  
Form Expression ◽  
Micromechanical Models

Effective thermal conductivities of composites consisting of curvilinearly anisotropic inclusions with Kapitza thermal contact resistance between the constituents are considered. We show that the effect of these curvilinearly anisotropic inclusions can be exactly simulated by certain equivalent isotropic or transversely isotropic inclusions. Three different micromechanical models are employed to estimate the effective thermal conductivity of the composite. Interestingly, all these methods result in the same simple, closed-form expression.

Thermal Contact Resistance at a Metal Foam-Solid Surface Interface

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Sadeghi ◽  
Scott Hsieh ◽  
Majid Bahrami
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Contact Resistance ◽  
Effective Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Contact Area ◽  
Thermal Contact Resistance ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Real Contact Area ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Contact

Accurate information on heat transfer and temperature distribution in metal foams is necessary for design and modeling of thermal-hydraulic systems incorporating metal foams. The analysis of this process requires determination of the effective thermal conductivity as well as the thermal contact resistance (TCR) associated with the interface between the metal foams and adjacent surfaces/layers. In the present study, a test bed that allows the separation of effective thermal conductivity and thermal contact resistance in metal foams is described. Measurements are performed in a vacuum under varying compressive loads using ERG Duocel aluminum foam samples with different porosities and pore densities. Also, a graphical method associated with a computer code is developed to demonstrate the distribution of contact spots and estimate the real contact area at the interface. Our results show that the porosity and the effective thermal conductivity remain unchanged with the variation of compression in the range of 0 to 2 MPa; but TCR decreases significantly with pressure due to an increase in the real contact area at the interface. Moreover, the ratio of real to nominal contact area varies between 0 to 0.013, depending upon the compressive force, porosity, and surface characteristics.

Design of High Thermal Conductivity Particle Filled Polymer Using Effective Thermal Conductivity Models

2012 ◽  
Vol 714 ◽  
pp. 21-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Garnier ◽  
F. Danes
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Effective Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Thermal Contact Resistance ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Finite Element Models ◽  
Inner Diameter ◽  
Conductive Particles ◽  
Conductivity Models

The context of this work is the enhancement of the thermal conductivity of polymer by adding conductive particles. It will be shown how we can use effective thermal conductivity models to investigate effect of various factors such as the volume fraction of filler, matrix thermal conductivity, thermal contact resistance, and inner diameter for hollow particles. Analytical models for lower bounds and finite element models will be discussed. It is shown that one can get some insights from effective thermal conductivity models for the tailoring of conductive composite, therefore reducing the amount of experimental work.

A Transient Technique to Determine Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Contact Resistance of Porous Materials

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter De Jaeger ◽  
Christophe T’Joen ◽  
Henk Huisseune ◽  
Michel De Paepe
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Contact Resistance ◽  
Effective Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Thermal Contact Resistance ◽  
Heat Conduction Problem ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Reference Case ◽  
Transient Technique ◽  
Marquardt Algorithm ◽  
Single Temperature

The application of a transient technique for the measurement of effective thermal conductivity and thermal contact resistance of porous media is discussed. A sensitivity analysis has proven that direct measurement of thermal contact resistance from a single temperature recording is not feasible. It requires the measurement of at least one additional sample with different height. The estimation of effective thermal conductivity is done by solving the inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP). The direct problem is treated analytically by describing the system with a quadrupole formalism in Laplace domain. The inversion procedure was found to be computational expensive. For this reason, the analytical solution of a reference case was obtained and used to validate a finite difference scheme. The indirect problem of the IHCP is solved via the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. Preliminary results are shown to demonstrate the method. Future actions consist of calibrating the experimental setup, benchmark with known materials and report uncertainty.

Surface Chemistry and Characteristics Based Model for the Thermal Contact Resistance of Fluidic Interstitial Thermal Interface Materials

2001 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 969-975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravi S. Prasher
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Contact Resistance ◽  
Thermal Contact Resistance ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Thermal Interface Materials ◽  
Heat Spreader ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Thermal Solution ◽  
Interface Materials

Microprocessor powers are increasing at a phenomenal rate, which requires very small thermal resistance between the die (chip) and the ambient, if the current economical methods of conduction and convection cooling are to be utilized. A typical thermal solution in flip chip technology utilizes two levels of thermal interface materials: between the die and the heat spreader, and between the heat spreader and the heat sink. Phase change materials and thermal greases are among the most prominent interstitial thermal interface materials (TIM) used in electronic packaging. These TIMs are typically polymeric matrix loaded with highly conducting filler particles. The dwindling thermal budget has necessitated a better understanding of the thermal resistance of each component of the thermal solution. Thermal conductivity of these particle-laden materials is better understood than their contact resistance. A careful review of the literature reveals the lack of analytical models for the prediction of contact resistance of these types of interstitial materials, which possess fluidic properties. This paper introduces an analytical model for the thermal contact resistance of these types of interstitial materials. This model is compared with the experimental data obtained on the contact resistance of these TIMs. The model, which depends on parameters such as, surface tension, contact angle, thermal conductivity, roughness and pressure matches very well with the experimental data at low pressures and is still within the error bars at higher pressures.

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