• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.5 s.248
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• pp.489-495
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• 2006

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) should be sufficiently hydrated with a careful consideration of heat and water management. Water management has been a critical operation issue for better understanding the operation and optimizing the performance of a PEM fuel cell. The flooding on cathode side resulting from excess water can limit the fuel cell performance. In this study, the visual cell was designed and fabricated fur the visualization of liquid water droplet dynamics related to cathode flooding in flow channels. The experiment was carried out to observe the formation, growth and removal of water droplets using CCD imaging system. Effects of operating conditions such as cell temperature, air flow rate and air relative humidity on cathode flooding characteristics were mainly investigated. Based on this study, we can get the basic insight into flooding phenomena and its two-phase flow nature. It is expected that data obtained can be effectively used fur the setup and validation of two-phase PEM fuel cell models considering cathode flooding.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.384-387
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• 2005

Fuel cell has been well known as a clean alternative power for vehicles. Recently, an experimental technique has been developed measurement of species and distributions by using gas chromatograph. In this study, cathode channel oxygen distributions as various conditions were investigated using gas chromatograph and cell visualization. And discussed relation between flooding and oxygen concentrations. As a result of experiment, oxygen consumpt ion is affected wi th flooding. Flooding is observed in channel near hydrogen inlet, and oxygen consumption is low at that region.