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Liquid water flooding in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell cathode with an interdigitated design
Author(s) -
Kang Simo,
Zhou Biao,
Cheng ChinHsiang,
Shiu HuanRuei,
Lee ChunI
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.1858
Subject(s) - cathode , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , fluent , flooding (psychology) , two phase flow , nuclear engineering , porosity , materials science , porous medium , computational fluid dynamics , flow (mathematics) , fuel cells , engineering , chemical engineering , mechanics , electrical engineering , composite material , physics , psychology , psychotherapist
SUMMARY In this paper, we studied the liquid water flooding process in the flow field of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with an interdigitated design by using a multi‐phase three‐dimensional fuel cell cathode side model with a porous layer. The commercial CFD software package fluent (ANSYS Canonsburg, PA, USA) was used with a user‐defined function. The results indicate that the general liquid water flooding process inside of this type of cathode design can be classified into three phases (the porous layer phase, the channel phase, and the drainage phase), and the details of liquid water behavior during this flooding process can be well understood and explained using the air–liquid interaction. Also, a liquid water avalanche phenomenon was discovered in this type of cathode design. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.