• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.391-398
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• 2006

This work involves a method for modeling the flow distribution in the stack of a solid oxide fuel cell. Towards this end, a three dimensional modeling of the flow through a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) stack was carried out using the CFD analysis. This paper examines the efficacy of using cold flow analysis to describe the flow through a SOFC stack. It brings out the relative importance of temperature effect and the mass transfer effect on the SOFC manifold design. Another feature of this study is to utilize statistical tools to ascertain the extent of uniform flow through a stack. The results showed that the cold flow analysis of flow through SOFC might not lead to correct manifold designs. The results of the numerical calculations also indicated that the mass transfer across membrane was essential to correctly describe the cathode flow, while only temperature effects were sufficient to describe the anode flow in a SOFC.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• 제8권6호
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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.

• 한국기계가공학회지
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.11-18
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• 2020

The emergence of the flow-through cell (FTC) method has made up for the limitations of previous dissolution test methods, but the high cost of the FTC dissolution devices have seriously hindered the progression of research and application of the FTC. This new design uses a peristaltic pump to simulate the sinusoidal flow rate of a piston pump. The flow profile of each peristaltic pump was sinusoidal with a pulsation of 120 ± 1 pulses per minute, and the flow rate ranged from 1.0 - 36.0 mL/min. The flow control of each channel was adjusted independently so the flow errors of the seven channels were close to 2%. The structure of the system was simplified, and the cost was reduced through manual sampling and immersing the FTC in a water bath. The dissolution rate of the theophylline and aminophylline films was determined, and good experimental results were obtained.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.386-392
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• 2014

The effective water management in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is one of the key strategies for improving cell performance and durability. In this work, an ex situ measurement was carried out to understand the water droplet behavior on the surface of gas diffusion layer (GDL) as a fundamental study for establishing novel water management. For that purpose, simplified cell including one rib and two flow channels was designed and fabricated. Using this ex situ device, the water droplet emergence through the GDL of the PEMFC was emulated to understand liquid water transport through the porous diffusion medium. Through the visualization experiment, the emergence and growth of water droplets at the channel/GDL interface are mainly observed with the surface characteristics of GDL (SGL 10BA, 24BA) and rib when the liquid water passes through the GDL and is expelled to the flow channel. It is expected that the results obtained from this study can contribute to the better understanding on the water droplet behavior (emergence and removal) in the flow channels of PEMFC.

• 한국복합재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국복합재료학회 2002년도 춘계학술발표대회 논문집
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• pp.181-183
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• 2002

The accurate permeability for preform is critical to model and design the impregnation of fluid resin in the composite manufacturing process. In this study, the in-plane and transverse permeability for a woven fabric are predicted numerically through the coupled flow model which combines microscopic with macroscopic flow. The microscopic and macroscopic flow which are flows within the micro-unit and macro-unit cell, respectively, are calculated by using 3-D CVFEM(control volume finite element method). To avoid checker-board pressure field and improve the efficiency on numerical computation, A new interpolation function for velocity is proposed on the basis of analytic solutions. The permeability of plain woven fabric is measured through unidirectional flow experiment and compared with the permeability calculated numerically. Based on the good agreement of the results, the relationships between the permeability and the structures of preform such as the fiber volume fraction and stacking effect can be understood. The reverse and the simple stacking are taken in account. Unlike past literatures, this study is based on more realistic unit cell and the improved prediction of permeability can be achieved. It is observed that in-plane flow is more dominant than transverse flow in the real flow through preform and the stacking effect of multi-layered preform is negligible. Consequently, the proposed coupled flow model can be applied to modeling of real composite materials processing.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.403-407
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• 2007

The anodic degradation of benzoquinone(BQ), a model compound for wastewater treatment was carried out using a home-made flow-through electrochemical cell with carbon fibers. To optimize the controlled current electrolysis condition of an aqueous BQ solution, the experimental variables affecting the degradation of BQ, such as the applying current, pH, reaction time, and flow rate of the BQ solution were examined. The degradation products of the oxidation reaction were identified by High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometer. Low molecular weight aliphatic acids, and CO2 were the major products in this experiment. The removal efficiency of BQ from the solution increased with the applying current and time. 99.23% of 1.0 × 10-2 M BQ was degraded to aliphatic acids and CO2 when the applying current is 175 mA in a 12 hr electrolysis.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2007년도 춘계학술대회B
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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.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.245-255
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• 2021

Various studies about metallic bipolar plates have been conducted to improve fuel cell performance through flow field design optimization. These research works have been mainly focused on fuel cells for vehicle, but not fuel cells for building. In order to reduce the price and volume of fuel cell stacks for building, it is necessary to apply a metallic flow field, In this study, for a metallic flow field applied to a fuel cell for building, the effect of a change in the flow field shape on the performance of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell was confirmed using a model and experiments with a down-sizing single cell. As a result, the flow field using a metal foam outperforms the channel type flow field because it has higher internal differential pressure and higher reactants velocity in gas diffusion layer, resulting in higher water removal and higher oxygen concentration in the catalyst layer than the channel type flow field. This study is expected to contribute to providing basic data for selecting the optimal flow field for the full stack of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for buildings.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2011년도 추계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.86.1-86.1
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• 2011

To improve the safety, the fuel cell operate inside a pressurized enclosure which contains inert gas so called protective gas. The protective gas not only prevents the mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, but also removes the water in the vessel with the condenser. This study presents the details of the flow optimization in order to reduce the humidity in the fuel cell housing. The protective gas flow in the fuel cell container is studied by Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) simulations. This study focuses on optimizing the geometry of an protective gas circulation system in fuel cell module to reduce the humidity in the vessel. CFD analysis was carried out for an existing model to understand the flow behavior through the fuel cell system. Based on existing model CFD results, geometrical changes like inlet placement, optimization of outlet size, modification of fuel cell module system are carried out, to improve the flow characteristics. The CFD analysis of the optimized model is again carried out and the results show good improvement in protective gas flow behavior.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제33권4호
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• pp.288-297
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• 2009

A serpentine channel geometry often used in a fuel cell has a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions. The pressure gradient helps some amount of reactant gas penetrate through a gas diffusion layer(GDL). As a result, the overall serpentine flow structure is slightly different from the intention of a designer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of serpentine flow structure on current density distribution. By using a commercial code, STAR-CD, a numerical simulation is performed to analyze the fuel cell with high aspect ratio of active area. To increase the accuracy of the numerical simulation, GDL permeabilities are measured with various compressive forces. Three-dimensional flow field and current density distribution are calculated. For the verification of the numerical simulation results, water condensation process in the cathode channel is observed through a transparent bipolar plate. The result of this study shows that the region of relatively low current density corresponds that of dropwise condensation in cathode channels.