Accelerated Numerical Test of Liquid Behavior Across Gas Diffusion Layer in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Cathode

Abstract

Liquid water transport inside proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is one of the key challenges for water management in a PEM fuel cell. Investigation of the air-water flow patterns inside fuel cell gas flow channels with gas diffusion layer (GDL) would provide valuable information that could be used in fuel cell design and optimization. This paper presents an accelerated numerical investigation of air-water flow across a GDL with a serpentine channel on PEM fuel cell cathode by use of a commercial computational fluid dynamics software package FLUENT. Detailed flow patterns with air-water across the porous media were investigated and discussed.