A NOVEL FRACTAL MODEL FOR RELATIVE PERMEABILITY OF GAS DIFFUSION LAYER IN PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELL WITH CAPILLARY PRESSURE EFFECT

作者：Xiao, Boqi^*; Wang, Wei; Zhang, Xian; Long, Gongbo; Chen, Hanxin; Cai, Hongtao; Deng, Lin

来源：Fractals-Complex Geometry Patterns and Scaling in Nature and Society, 2019, 27(2): 1950012.

DOI：10.1142/S0218348X19500129

• Fractal Analytical Model
• Gas Diffusion Layer
• Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell
• Capillary Pressure
• Relative Permeability

The investigation of fluids transport through porous gas diffusion layer (GDL) is very important to improve the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In this paper, the fractal analytical models of capillary pressure for water phase and water and gas relative permeabilities of fibrous GDL are obtained. The determined capillary pressure and relative permeabilities based on the present models are in good agreement with the available experimental data and existing models reported in the literature. Thus the validity of the proposed models for the capillary pressure and relative permeabilities is verified. It is found that the capillary pressure increases with the increase of fiber volume fraction and tortuosity fractal dimension. On the other hand, it is seen that the capillary pressure decreases with increasing water saturation. It is seen that the water relative permeability decreases with increasing tortuosity fractal dimension. On the contrary, it is found that the gas relative permeability increases with tortuosity fractal dimension. Besides, it is observed that the porosity has little effect on the water and gas relative permeabilities.

• 出版日期2019-3
• 单位三明学院; 武汉工程大学