Coupling between finite volume method and lattice Boltzmann method and its application to fluid flow and mass transport in proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Lattice Boltzmann Pore-Scale Investigation of Coupled Physical-electrochemical Processes in C/Pt and Non-Precious Metal Cathode Catalyst Layers in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

“…In this work, for the first time, the LBM is adopted to simulate the electrochemical processes (both reaction and transport) in a CL under PEMFC cathode conditions. The evolution equation for the concentration distribution function is as follows g i ðx þ c i Dt; t þ DtÞ À g i ðx; tÞ ¼ À 1 t g ðg i ðx; tÞ À g eq i ðx; tÞÞ þ a i S O 2 Dt (12) where g i is the distribution function with velocity c i at the lattice site x and time t. It is worth mentioning that for simple geometries, a D3Q7 (3 dimensional 7 lattice directions) lattice model (or D2Q5 model in 2D) is sufficient to accurately predict the diffusion process and properties, which can greatly reduce the computational resources, compared with D3Q19 (or D2Q9 in 2D), as proven by our previous work [29,33,34,[50][51][52][53]. For complex porous structures, especially for those with relatively low porosity such as CL, using a reduced lattice model will damage the connectivity of certain phases, thus leading to underestimated effective transport properties.…”

From Lattice Boltzmann Method to Lattice Boltzmann Flux Solver

“…In some interesting works, this C-E analysis is also applied to build a hybrid solver by combing the LBM with the FVM scheme for Navier-Stokes equations [37][38][39]. In our recent work [9,10], it was found that the relationship between flow variables/fluxes and particle distribution functions given in Equation (12) can be applied to build a new solver named LBFS with a better performance, which effectively combines the advantages of Navier-Stokes solver and lattice Boltzmann solver and at the same time removes some of their drawbacks.…”

Gas-Phase Mass-Transfer Resistances at Polymeric Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells Electrodes: Theoretical Analysis on the Effectiveness of Interdigitated and Serpentine Flow Arrangements

“…Sh t (26) are directly used to define Sh kin and Sh M from Sh t data or theoretical considerations on the Sh t trend. On the other hand, the results are less accurate for high Sh M : in fact, the harmonic mean Equation (25) is automatically correct only when the diffusive and the reactive paths work strictly in series; on the contrary, in the system considered here, the diffusion and the reaction at the electrode surface work more in a series-parallel manner, so that Equation (25) must be considered as an approximation which respects the two asymptotic Solutions (26), but is affected by an appreciable error for intermediate conditions.…”

“…In such a way, different levels of approximation for the estimation of the local electrochemical kinetics are available. Neglecting here micro-and mesoscopic levels [26], the more accurate approach traditionally consists of detailed numerical simulation tools [7,8,11,16,21,27], which can be heavy to handle when commercial size cells or stack are considered. Advanced analytical studies have also been recently proposed, such as the fractal approach [28], which are useful to assess the main relationships which rule phenomena and influence performance.…”