• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.415-420
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• 2010

This study is focused on the channel design of bipolar plate in the electrode of hydrogen gas generator. The characteristics of hydrogen gas generation was studied in view of efficiency of hydrogen gas generation rate and a tendency of gas flow through the riv design of electrode. Since the flow rate and flow pattern of generated gas in the two phase flow system are the most crucial in determining the efficiency of hydrogen gas generator, we adopted the commercial analytical program of COMSOL MultiphysicsTM to calculate the theoretical flow rate of hydrogen gas from the outlet of gas generator and flow pattern of two phase fluid in the electrode. In this study, liquid electrolyte flows into the bipolar plate and decomposed into gas phase, two phase flow simulation is applied to measure the efficiency of hydrogen gas generation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.227-236
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• 2016

In the present experimental study, the effect of gas- and liquid-injected methods on the formation of bubble and liquid slug at the merging micro T-junction of a square microchannel with dimensions $600{\mu}m{\times}600{\mu}m$ was investigated. Nitrogen and water were used as test fluids. The superficial velocities of the liquid and gas were in the range of 0.05 - 1 m/s, and 0.1 - 1 m/s, respectively, where the Taylor flow was observed. The bubble length, liquid slug length, bubble velocity, and bubble generation frequency were measured by analyzing the images captured using a high-speed camera. Under similar inlet superficial velocity conditions, in the case of gas injection to the main channel at the merging T-junction (T_gas-liquid), the lengths of the bubble and liquid slug were longer, and the bubble generation frequency was lower than in the case of liquid injection to the main channel at the merging T-junction (T_liquid-gas). On the other hand, in both cases, the bubble velocity was almost the same. The previous correlation proposed using experimental data for T_liquid-gas had predicted the present experimental data of bubble length, bubble velocity, liquid slug length, and bubble generation frequency for T_gas-liquid to be ~24%, ~9%, ~39%, ~55%, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.688-698
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• 2009

Using the multi-dimensional, multi-phase, nonisothermal Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) model presented in Part I, the effects of land/channel flow-field on temperature and liquid saturation distributions inside PEFCs are investigated in Part II. The focus is placed on exploring the coupled water transport and heat transfer phenomena within the nonisothermal and two-phase zone existing in the diffusion media (DM) of PEFCs. Numerical simulations are performed varying the land and channel widths and simulation results reveal that the water profile and temperature rise inside PEFCs are considerably altered by changing the land and channel widths, which indicates that oxygen supply and heat removal from the channel to the land regions and liquid water removal from the land toward the gas channels are key factors in determining the water and temperature distributions inside PEFCs. In addition, the adverse liquid saturation gradient along the thru-plane direction is predicted near the land regions by the numerical model, which is due to the vapor-phase diffusion driven by the temperature gradient in the nonisothermal two-phase DM where water evaporates at the hotter catalyst layer, diffuses as a vapor form and then condenses on the cooler land region. Therefore, the vapor phase diffusion exacerbates DM flooding near the land region, while it alleviates DM flooding near the gas channel.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.834-839
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• 2009

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed to investigate flow characteristics in the anode channels and manifold of the internal reforming type molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC). Considering the computational difficulties associated with the size and geometric complexity of the MCFC system, the polyhedral meshes that can reduce mesh connectivity problems at the intersection of the channel and the manifold are adopted and chemical reactions inside the MCFC system are not included. Through this study, the gas flow rate uniformity of the anode channels is mainly analyzed to provide basic insights into improved design parameters for anode flow channel design. Results indicate that the uniformity in flow-rate is in the range of ${\pm}$1% between the anode channels. Also, the mal-distributed inlet flow-rate conditions and the change in the size of the manifold depth have no significant effect on the flow-rate uniformity of the anode channels.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.3120-3124
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• 2008

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed to investigate flow characteristics in the anode channels and manifold of the internal reforming type molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC). Considering the computational difficulties associated with the size and geometric complexity of the MCFC system, the polyhedral meshes that can reduce mesh connectivity problems at the intersection of the channel and the manifold are adopted and chemical reactions inside the MCFC system are not included. Through this study, the gas flow rate uniformity of the anode channels is mainly analyzed to provide basic insights into improved design parameters for anode flow channel design. Results indicate that the uniformity in flow-rate is in the range of ${\pm}1%$ between the anode channels. Also, the mal-distributed inlet flow-rate conditions and the change in the size of the manifold depth have no significant effect on the flow-rate uniformity of the anode channels.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.151-168
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• 2012

Gas sparging is one of the techniques used to control the concentration polarization during ultrafiltration. In this work, the effects of gas sparging in stratified flow regime were investigated during gel layer controlling cross flow ultrafiltration in a rectangular channel. Synthetic solution of pectin was used as the gel forming solute. The liquid and gas flow rates were selected such that a stratified flow regime was prevalent in the channel. A mass transfer model was developed for this system to quantify the effects of gas flow rates on mass transfer coefficient (Sherwood number). The results were compared with the case of no gas sparging. Gas sparging led to an increase of mass transfer coefficient by about 23% in this case. The limitation of the developed model was also evaluated and it was observed that beyond a gas flow rate of 20 l/h, the model was unable to explain the experimental observation, i.e., the decrease in permeate flux with flow rate.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.81-84
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• 2006

To investigate the characteristics of water droplet on the gas diffusion layer from both upper-view and side-view of flow channel, a rig test apparatus was designed and fabricated with L-shape acryl plate in a $1mm{\times}1mm$ micro-channel. This experimental device is used to simulate the single droplet growth and its transport process under fuel cell operating condition. As a first step, we investigated the growth and transport of single water droplet with working temperature and air flow velocity. The contact angle and its hysteresis of water droplet at departing moment are measured and analyzed. It is expected that this study can provide the basic understanding of liquid water droplet behavior in gas flow channel and GDL interface during the PEM fuel cell operation.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.447-453
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• 1999

In MHD power generation system, enthalpy of the working gas is convened to electric power directly through expansion in generator channel. It means that electric power can be generated without a moving mechanical linkage such as turbine blades. The principle of MHD generation is based on Faraday'law of induction that eletromotive force(u$\times$B) is generated when the working gas of velocity u flows a channel in which magnetic field of strength(B) exists. In this paper, helium gas seeded with cesium is used as working gas. There are two types of generator in MHD generation; linear type faraday and disk type hall generator. Rogowski coils having the bandwidth of the 100(Hz) ~ 20(kHz) were used for measuring current flowing MHD disk channel. Optimum load resistor value of the MHD generator studied was 2.5[$\Omega$]. Disk type hall generator's generation performance is the main target of this paper, which superiors to linear type Faraday generator in many points. Isentropic efficiency and enthalpy extraction rate of disk type shock tube driven hall generator is discussed here.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2012

The serpentine flow channel is widely used in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to prevent flooding phenomena because it effectively removes liquid water in the flow channel. The pressure drop between inlet and outlet increases as compared with straight channels due to minor losses associated with the corners of the turning configurations. This results in a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions, where some amount of reactant gas can be delivered to catalyst layers by convection through a gas diffusion layer (GDL). The enhancement of the convective flow in the GDL, so-called bypass flow, affects fuel cell performance since the bypass flow influences the reactant transport and thus its concentration over the active area. In the present paper, for the bipolar plate design, a simple analytic model has been proposed to predict the bypass flow in the serpentine type flow channels and validated with three-dimensional numerical simulation results.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.761-769
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• 2007

The configuration of the flow channel on a bipolar plate of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) for efficient reactant supply has great influence on the performance of the fuel cell. Recent demand for higher energy density fuel cells requires an increase in current density at mid voltage range and a decrease in concentration overvoltage at high current density. Therefore, an interdigitated flow channel where mass transfer rate by convection through a gas diffusion layer is greater than the mass transfer by a diffusion mechanism through a gas diffusion layer was recently proposed. This study attempts to analyze the i-V performance, mass transfer and pressure drop in interdigitated flow channels by developing a fully three dimensional simulation model for PEMFC that can deal with anode and cathode flow together. The results indicate that the trade off between performance and pressure loss should be considered for efficient design of flow channels. Although the performance of the fuel cell with interdigitated flow is better than that with conventional flow channels due to a strong mass transfer rate by convection across a gas diffusion layer, there is also an increase in friction due to the strong convection through the porous diffusion layer accompanied by a larger pressure drop along the flow channel. It was evident that the proper selection of the ratio of channel and rib width under counter flow conditions in the fuel cell with interdigitated flow are necessary to optimize the interdigitated flow field design.