Abstract
Improving performance and reducing the costs are the most important issues for humidifiers of fuel cell vehicles. By developing the method for analyzing the quantitative gas velocity distribution that flows outside the hollow fiber membrane, new humidifier design, called inner by-pass flow model, was developed to obtain much uniform gas velocity distribution. In comparison with the conventional counter flow model, the inner bypass flow model configuration showed the higher efficiency of overall water flux in the whole module, and reduced the pressure drop, enabling approximate 40% decrease in the size of the humidifier, which can contribute the cost reduction.
