Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : June 14, 2017 - June 15, 2017
It is important to understand liquid water transport phenomena in through-plane direction in an operating polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) for improving power generation efficiency. As water accumulation affects the mass transport, relative permeability has been investigated as a function of water saturation. However, the values are much different in each model in particular for lower water saturation condition. The purpose of this study is to clarify water transport phenomena and effect of relative permeability of gas diffusion layer (GDL) on water transport phenomena in a PEFC. Three-dimensional mass transfer analysis in a GDL with multiphase mixture model was carried out. Numerical results using two different relative permeability models and experimental results were compared. Liquid water were distributed uniformly in the through-plane direction using Wang's model. Using hussaini's model, much water accumulate at reactive surface. Better results could be obtained using Hussaini's model of the relative permeability for predicting the water distribution.
