• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2008

Many researches for effects of different flow configurations on performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell have extensively been done but the effects of flow direction at the same flow channel shape should be considered for optimal operation of fuel cell as well. In this paper a numerical computational methode for simulating entire reactive flow fields including anode and cathode flow has been developed and the effects of different flow direction at parallel flow was studied. Pressure drop along the flow channel and density distribution of reactant and products and water transport, ion conductivity across the membrane and I-V performance are compared in terms of flow directions(co-flow or counter-flow) using above numerical simulation method. The results show that the performance under counter-flow condition is superior to that under co-flow condition due to higher reactant and water transport resulting to higher ion conductivity of membrane.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.421-422
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• 2011

The first part is about development of a liquid target for a neutron source, which is designed to overcome many of the limitations of traditional beam-target neutron generators by utilizing a liquid target neutron source. One of the most critical aspects of the beam-target neutron generator is the target integrity under the beam exposure. A liquid target can be a good solution to overcome damage to the target such as target erosion and depletion of hydrogen isotopes in the active layer, especially for the one operating at high neutron fluxes with no need for water cooling. There is no inherent target lifetime for the liquid target neutron generator when used with continuous refreshment of the target surface exposed to the energetic beam. In this work, liquid target containing hydrogen has been developed and tested in vacuum environment. Potentially, liquid targets could allow a point neutron source whose spatial extension is on the order of 1 to $10{\mu}m$. And the second is about the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectrometer which is designed as a five-channel spectral system for ITER main plasma measurement. To develop and verify the design, a two-channel prototype system was fabricated with No. 3 (14.4 nm~31.8 nm) and No. 4 (29.0 nm~60.0 nm) among the five channels. For test of the prototype system, a hollow cathode lamp is used as a light source. The system is composed of a collimating mirror to collect the light from source to slit, and two holographic diffraction gratings with toroidal geometry to diffract and also to collimate the light from the common slit to detectors. The two gratings are positioned at different optical distances and heights as designed. To study the appropriate detector for ITER VUV system, two different electronic detectors of the back-illuminated charge coupled device and the micro-channel plate electron multiplier were installed and the performance has been investigated and compared in the same experimental conditions. The overall system performance was verified by measuring the spectrums.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3440-3445
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• 2007

For proton exchange membrane fuel cell, it is very important to design the flow channel on separation plate optimally to maximize the current density at same electrochemical reaction surface and reduce the concentration polarization occurred at high current density. In this paper, three dimensional computation model including anode and cathode domain together was developed to examine effects of flow patterns and operation conditions such as humidity and operating temperature on performance of fuel cell. Results show that voltage at counter flow condition is higher than that at coflow condition in parallel and interdigitated flow pattern. And fuel cell with interdigitated flow pattern which has better mass transport by convection flow through gas diffusion layer has higher performance than with parallel flow pattern but its pressure drop is increased such that the trade off between performance and pressure drop should be considered for selection of flow pattern of fuel cell.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3377-3382
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• 2007

In proton exchange membrane fuel cell, the heat is generated at the catalyst layer as result of exothermic electrochemical reaction. This heat increases temperature of gas diffusion layer and membrane whose conductivity is very sensitive to humidity, function of temperature. So it is very important to analysis heat transfer through fuel cell to maintain temperature at specified range. In this paper numerical simulation was done including reversible, irreversible, ionic resistance, water formation loss to source term of energy equation. Results show that irreversible and water formation loss contributes mainly to energy source term and as current density increases, all of energy source terms become increased and Nusselt number is increased as results of more heat generation. Particularly irreversible loss is found to be predominant among the all energy source and water formation at cathode channel influences the temperature distribution of fuel cell greatly.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2648-2653
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• 2007

Recently, increasing demand on not only lighter but also extremely mobile battery make micro fuel cell device very attractive alternative. By reducing the size of fuel cell, surface tension becomes dominant factor with minor gravitational effect. Therefore, it is very difficult to detach the $CO_2$ bubble generating on a cathode side in ${\mu}DMFC$ (micro direct methanol fuel cell). The degassing of a $CO_2$ bubble has drawn quite attention especially for ${\mu}DMFC$ due to its considerable effect on overall machine performance. Our attention has been paid to the dynamic behavior of immiscible bubble attached to the one side of the wall on 2D rectangular channel subject to external shear flow. We use Level Contour Reconstruction Method (LCRM) which is simplified version of front tracking method to track the bubble interface motion. Effects of Reynolds number, Weber number, advancing/receding contact angle and property ratio on bubble detachment characteristic has been numerically identified.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.136-147
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• 2015

Dead-ended operation of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell(PEMFC) provides the simplification of fuel cell systems to reduce fuel consumption and weight of fuel cell. However, the water accumulation within the channel prohibits a uniform supply of fuel. Optimization of the purge strategy is required to increase the fuel cell efficiency since fuel and water are removed during the purge process. In this study, we investigated the average voltage output which depends on two interrelated conditions, namely, the supply gas pressure, purging valve open time. In addition, flow visualization was performed to better understand the water build-up on the anode side and cathode side of PEMFC in terms of a variety of the current density. We analyzed the correlation between the purge condition and water flooding.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.635-643
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• 2003

Parametric study for the analysis of performance characteristics of a planar -type solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) using computational flow analysis is conducted. A planar -type SOFC, which is composed by two gas channels (fuel and ai.) and one set of anode-electrolyte-cathode assembly, is modeled as a two -dimensional isothermal case. Results of computational analysis of flow field including distributions of mass fractions in gas channels are used to the performance analysis of the fuel cell. Flow analysis makes it possible to consider current density distributions along the length of the cell in the process of performance analysis of the SOFC. As results of parametric study, it is found that the mole fraction of fuel at the inlet of fuel channel, operating pressure and temperature are closely related to the performance characteristics of SOFC.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.643-648
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• 2010

Portable fuel cells are commonly operated in the dead-end mode because of such as high fuel utilization. However, the performance of such systems deteriorates continuously with an increase in the amount of by-products such as water vapor and nitrogen. In this study, to verify the effect of water vapor on Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs), constant-load experiments were carried out for a current density of 600 mA/cm2 and a voltage of 0.4 V, respectively. The performance of the cell was more stable under constant voltage conditions than under constant current density conditions. Condensed water accumulated in the anode channel near the cell outlet. The experimental results show how the relative humidity (RH = 0.15, 0.4 and 0.75) of air at the cathode side affect the performance of PEMFCs with dead-end anode. At RH values higher than 0.15, the mean power density increased by up to 51% and the mean purge duration decreased by up to 25% compared to the corresponding initial values.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.290-298
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• 2002

We present, for the first time, a prototype active-matrix field emission display (AMFED) in which an amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (a-Si TFT) and a molybdenum-tip field emitter array (Mo-tip FEA) were monolithically integrated on a glass substrate for a novel active-matrix cathode (AMC) plate. The fabricated AMFED showed good display images with a low-voltage scan and data signals irrespective of a high voltage for field emissions. We introduced a light shield layer of metal into our AMC to reduce the photo leakage and back channel currents of the a-Si TFT. We designed the light shield to act as a focusing grid to focus emitted electron beams from the AMC onto the corresponding anode pixel. The thin film depositions in the a-Si TFTs were performed at a high temperature of above 360°C to guarantee the vacuum packaging of the AMC and anode plates. We also developed a novel wet etching process for $n^+-doped$ a-Si etching with high etch selectivity to intrinsic a-Si and used it in the fabrication of an inverted stagger TFT with a very thin active layer. The developed a-Si TFTs performed well enough to be used as control devices for AMCs. The gate bias of the a-Si TFTs well controlled the field emission currents of the AMC plates. The AMFED with these AMC plates showed low-voltage matrix addressing, good stability and reliability of field emission, and good light emissions from the anode plate with phosphors.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.373-373
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• 2009

Relative humidity, membrane conductivity and water activity are critical parameters of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) for high performance and reliability. These parameters are closely related with temperature. Moreover, the ideal values of these parameters are not always identical along the channels. Therefore, the cooling channel design and its operating condition should be well optimized along the all location of the channels. In the present study, we have performed a numerical investigation on the effects of cooling channels on performance of a PEMFC. Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are solved with the energy equation including heat generated by the electrochemical reactions in the fuel cell. The present numerical model includes the gas diffusion layers (GDL) and serpentine channels for both anode and cathode gas flows, as well as cooling channels. To accurately predict the water transport across the membrane, the distribution of water content in the membrane is calculated by solving a nonlinear differential equation with a nonlinear coefficient, i.e., the water diffusivity which is a function of water content as well as temperature. Main emphasis is placed on the heat transfer between the solid bipolar plate and coolant flow. The present results show that local current density is affected by cooling channels due to the change of the oxygen concentration and the membrane conductivity as well as the water content. It is also found that the relative humidity is influenced by the generated water and the gas temperature and thus it affects the distribution of fuel concentration and the conductivity of the membrane, ultimately fuel cell performance. Unit-cell experiments are also carried out to validate the numerical models. The performance curves between the models and experiments show reasonable results.