A Study on the Transport Process in Gas Diffusion Layer of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

作者：Tan Zetao; Jia Li; Zhang Zhuqian

来源：Journal of Thermal Science, 2011, 20(5): 449-453.

DOI：10.1007/s11630-011-0494-1

• PEMFC
• gas diffusion layer
• pore network model
• water breakthrough
• temperature

Gas diffusion layer (GDL) plays a great important role in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Water transport mechanism in GDL is still not clear. In the present study, an ex-situ transparent setup is built to visualize the transport phenomena and to measure the threshold pressure of water in GDL at different temperatures. It is found that the relationship between the breakthrough pressure and the temperature is nearly linear (i.e. the pressure decreases linearly with the increase of temperature). To avoid the problems faced by the continuum models, the pore network model is developed to simulate the liquid water transport through the carbon paper. A uniform pressure boundary condition is used in simulation and the results are similar to the ones obtained in the experiment. The reason is that the contact angle and surface tension coefficient of water in GDLs change accordingly with the change of temperature.

• 出版日期2011-10
• 单位北京交通大学