Abstract
The emergence and transportation process of liquid water from a micro-pore on the gas diffusion layer surface under the action of gas flow in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEFC) is simulated by a modified free energy based lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with large density ratio. A so called space averaged index function method is used to improve the mass conservation in the LBM scheme. And the effect of the GDL surface wettability on the liquid water removal efficiency is investigated. The simulation results show that the mass conservation of the LBM for the 3D simulation has been greatly improved and satisfied. The highly hydrophobic surface of GDL has a better performance in liquid water removal and less surface coverage area. It is shown that this LBM method can be an effective tool in simulating the two phase flow in the PEFC.
