• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.885-891
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• 2010

Thermal management is important for enhancing the performance and durability of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and is taken into account in the design of PEMFCs. In general, cooling pates with circulating liquid coolant (water) are inserted between several unit cells to exhaust the reaction heat from PEMFCs. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed to characterize the uniform cooling performance of parallel multipass serpentine flow fields (MPSFFs) that were used as coolant flow channels in PEMFCs. The cooling performances of conventional serpentine and parallel flow fields were also evaluated for the purpose of comparison. The CFD results showed that the use of parallel MPSFFs can help reduce the temperature nonuniformity, and thus, can favorably enhance the performance and durability of PEMFCs.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.604-612
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• 2009

Water management has been recognized as a crucial factor for achieving better performance and stability in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Proper water management should provide favorable water conditions, including the local humidity, membrane water content, and liquid water saturation in PEMFCs, thereby leading to more uniform electrochemical reaction and current generation. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was conducted to investigate the effects of the cathode relative humidity (RH) on the performance of a 3 by $3\;cm^2$ PEMFC with serpentine flow fields. The CFD results showed that the best performance of the PEMFC was obtained for the cathode RH of 80%, but the performance variation was small for the cathode RH range of $60{\sim}100%$. However, the loss of the PEMFC performance was significant when the cathode RH was reduced below 40%. The reason for such performance variation was investigated through the detailed inspection of ohmic loss, activation and concentration overpotential, and water and current distributions.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.442-448
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• 2021

Flow field is an important parameter for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance to have an effect on the reactant supply, heat and water diffusion, and contact resistance. In this study, PEMFC performance was investigated using Cu foam flow field at the cathode of 25 cm² unit cell. Polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were performed at different pressure and relative humidity conditions. The Cu foam showed lower cell performance than that of serpentine type due to its high ohmic resistance, but lower activation and concentration loss due to the even reactant distribution of porous structure. Cu foam has the advantage of effective water transport because of its hydrophobicity. However, it showed low membrane hydration at low humidity condition. The metal foam flow field could improve fuel cell performance with a uniform pressure distribution and effective water management, so future research on the properties of metal foam should be conducted to reduce electrical resistance of bipolar plate.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.265-273
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• 2009

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) has low operating temperature and high efficiency. And PEMFC consists of many components as bipolar plate, gas diffusion layer, membrane etc.. Flow-field in bipolar plate roles path for transporting reactants to membrane. Therefore a design of flow-field has an effect on PEMFC's performance. In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed for comparing mixed multiple serpentine (MMS) flow-field and multiple serpentine (MS) flow-field. And we studied an effect according to change mixing region design in MMS flow-field. Finally the applicability of results is verified by performing CFD simulation about fixed MMS flow-field which is combined good designs.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.618-623
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• 2022

The bipolar plate is a key component of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) that transfers reactants and electrons, discharges water and heat as by-products, and serves as a mechanical support for the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Therefore, the flow field structure of the bipolar plate plays an important role in improving fuel cell performance. In this study, PEMFC performance was investigated with copper foams with different compressibility ratios applied to cathode bipolar plates using a 25 cm² unit cell. The total resistance decreased as the compressibility ratio of the metal foams increased, and, in particular, the charge transfer and mass transfer resistance were significantly improved compared to the serpentine flow field, lowering voltage loss in medium and high current density region. In the case of pressurized air reactant flow with serpentine structure, fuel cell performance was similar to that of a compressed metal foam flow field (S3) up to the medium current density region, but low performance appeared in the high current density region due to flow field structure limitations.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2018

General polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC) operates at less than $80^{\circ}C$. Therefore liquid phase water resulting from electrochemical reaction accumulates and floods the cell which in turn increases the mass transfer loss. To prevent the flooding, it is common to employ serpentine flow channel, which can efficiently export liquid phase water to the outlet. The major drawback of utilizing serpentine flow channel is the large pressure drop that happens between the inlet and outlet. On the other hand, in the high temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEMFC), since the operating temperature is 130 to $180^{\circ}C$, the generated water is in the state of gas, so the flooding phenomenon is not taken into consideration. In HT-PEMFCs parallel flow channel with lower pressure drop between the inlet and outlet is employed therefore, in order to circulate hydrogen and air in the cell less pumping power is required. In this study we analyzed HT-PEMFC's different flow channels by parallel computation using previously developed 3-D isothermal model. All the flow channels had an active area of $25cm^2$. Also, we numerically compared the performance of HT-PEMFC parallel flow channel with different manifold area and Rib interval against the original serpentine flow channel. Results of the analysis are shown in the form of three-dimensional contour polarization curves, flow characteristics in the channel, current density distribution in the Membrane, overpotential distribution in the catalyst layer, and hydrogen and oxygen concentration distribution. As a result, the performance of a real area fuel cell was predicted.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.58-60
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• 1994

막 모듈의 종류에는 평판형(Plate and Frarne), 나권형(Spiral Wound), 중공사형(Hollow Fiber), 관형(Tubular) 등이 있다. 이 중에서 관형 모듈은 공업적 스케일의 한외여과 장치로써 그 특징은 공급액 유로가 일반적으로 커서 전처리를 행하지 않고도 막히는 것이 적으며, 또한 막 표면의 세정이 약품에 의한 것 이외에 스폰지 볼 등에 의한 물리적 세정이 가능한 것이 있으므로 공업용이나 폐액처리 등에 적용할 수 있다는 것이다.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2828-2833
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• 2008

Water management is one of many operating parameters, which influences the performance and stability of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Local humidity condition including liquid water saturation has profound impacts on the distributions of overpotentials, current density, and membrane water content. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were conducted to investigate the effect of the inlet humidity variation on the performance of a PEMFC of $9\;cm^2$ active cell area with serpentine flow fields. The results showed that the performance of the simulated PEMFC remained at an almost same level when the cathode inlet humidity was changed from 100% to 60%, while reaching its maximum at air humidity of 80%. However, further decrease in the cathode inlet humidity below 40% started to significantly deteriorate the performance of the PEMFC. The variations of overpotentials, membrane water content, etc. due to the change in the cathode inlet humidity were also discussed.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.46-47
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• 1996

막분리 공정의 공업적인 이용을 위해서는 막을 특정 용기에 적재한 모듈의 형태가 요구되는데 모듈의 형태에 따라 평판형(plate and frame), 나권형(spiral wound), 관형(tubular), 중공사형(hollow fiber)모듈 등이 있다. 이 중에서 관형 시스템은 내경이 12.5~25 mm, 길이 0.6~6.4 m에 이르는 비교적 큰 open channel로 되어 있으며 공급액 유로가 일반적으로 커서 전처리를 행하지 않고도 fouling이 적으며, 또한 막 표면의 세정이 약품에 의한 것 이외에 스폰지 볼 등에 의한 물리적 세정도 가능하므로 응용 범위가 넓다는 것이 특징이다. 한외여과 공정의 가장 큰 문제점은 농도분극 및 fouling 현상에 의한 플럭스 감소이다. 농도분극 현상은 경계층에서 용질의 대류,확산적인 전달에 기인하여 막 표면으로 갈수록 진해지는 용액층의 형성을 의미한다. 이 현상은 가역적인 과정으로서 감압함으로 원상태로 회복이 가능하며 조작 압력에서 정상상태가 되면 막투과 플럭스는 일정한 값을 유지한다.