Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5146932 | International Journal of Hydrogen Energy | 2016 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Accurate capillary pressure-liquid water saturation relationship (pc-s) plays a key role in predicting the performance of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells and the two-phase flow characteristics in gas diffusion layer (GDL). In this work, a validated Leverett function (K-function) based on the experimental pc-s data for SGL24 and SGL10 series carbon paper GDL materials is incorporated into a three-dimensional and two-phase PEM fuel cell model to investigate the effects of gas diffusion layer properties on the cell performance. Special emphasis is put on Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) loading (5-20Â wt%) in the GDL, compression pressure (1-4Â MPa) and micro-porous layer (MPL). The results show that the cell exhibits better performance when a higher PTFE loading of 20% and a lower compression pressure of 1Â MPa are adopted. However, liquid water is hard to drain from the GDL with the 5Â wt% PTFE loading due to the low hydrophobicity, especially under the ribs; for the high compression pressure of 4Â MPa, small effective porosity caused by the pressure becomes the major resistance of water drainage. The existence of MPL is also very helpful to reduce the water saturation in the GDL.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemistry
Electrochemistry
Authors
Chao Si, Gui Lu, Xiao-Dong Wang, Duu-Jong Lee,