An on-line study of fuel cell behavior by thermal neutrons

It is possible to investigate the water distribution inside an operating fuel cell by means of neutron imaging methods. This way, dedicated performance parameters can be applied to the fuel cell and the two-phase flow phenomena are studied in situ, with reasonable spatial and time resolution. Appropriate post-processing allows quantitative evaluation, which is essential for the understanding of the relation between flow characteristics and electrochemical behavior of the cell. For this paper, the investigation of the two-phase flow inside the anodic compartment of a direct methanol fuel cell has been chosen in order to quantitatively demonstrate the suitability of neutron imaging with thermal neutrons.