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http://dx.doi.org/10.3795/KSME-B.2009.33.4.288

A Study on the Bypass Flow Penetrating Through a Gas Diffusion Layer in a PEM Fuel Cell with Serpentine Flow Channels  

Cho, Choong-Won (한국에너지기술연구원)
Ahn, Eun-Jin (한국에너지기술연구원)
Lee, Seung-Bo (한양대학교 기계공학과)
Yoon, Young-Gi (한국에너지기술연구원)
Lee, Won-Yong (한국에너지기술연구원)
Publication Information
Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B / v.33, no.4, 2009 , pp. 288-297 More about this Journal
Abstract
A serpentine channel geometry often used in a fuel cell has a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions. The pressure gradient helps some amount of reactant gas penetrate through a gas diffusion layer(GDL). As a result, the overall serpentine flow structure is slightly different from the intention of a designer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of serpentine flow structure on current density distribution. By using a commercial code, STAR-CD, a numerical simulation is performed to analyze the fuel cell with high aspect ratio of active area. To increase the accuracy of the numerical simulation, GDL permeabilities are measured with various compressive forces. Three-dimensional flow field and current density distribution are calculated. For the verification of the numerical simulation results, water condensation process in the cathode channel is observed through a transparent bipolar plate. The result of this study shows that the region of relatively low current density corresponds that of dropwise condensation in cathode channels.
Keywords
PEMFC; Numerical Simulation; Serpentine Channel; Gas Diffusion Layer; Gas Permeability;
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