A Comparison Study of CFD Analysis and Flow Visualization on Behavior of Liquid Water in Cathode Channels of PEM Fuel Cells

PEM 연료전지 공기극 유로에서 물의 거동에 대한 CFD 해석과 가시화 실험의 비교 연구

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells are promising power generation devices which are ideal for residential and automobile applications, thanks to their fast transient characteristics. However, liquid water produced in PEM fuel cells should be properly managed to enhance the performances and durabilities of the cells. In this study, a visualization experiment was conducted to investigate the flow behavior of water droplets in cathode channels. The visualization experiment was done with four different model flow channels which were made by varying the material (Acrylic and Teflon) and the channel width (1 mm and 2 mm). Acrylic is hydrophilic (contact angle is about $80^{\circ}$) while Teflon is hydrophobic (contact angle is about $120^{\circ}$). A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was also performed to compare the observed and the simulated two-phase water/air flow characteristics in cathode channels. The computational models were made to be consistent with the geometries and surface properties of the model flow channels. Both the experimental and numerical results showed that the Teflon cathode channel with 1 mm width has the best water management performance among four model flow channels considered. A close correlation was found between the experimental visualization results and the numerical CFD simulation results.