Modeling gas flow in PEMFC channels: Part I – Flow pattern transitions and pressure drop in a simulated ex situ channel with uniform water injection through the GDL

Liquid water saturation and oxygen transport resistance in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell gas diffusion layers

“…At an operating current density of 1.5 A • cm −2 , Chevalier et al [66] observed an increase in peak local liquid water saturation from <5% to 86% when the cathode RH was varied from 25% to 100%. In addition to the direct studies of GDL water mentioned above, numerous studies have studied PEM fuel cell liquid water accumulation in the channels via direct visualization or measurement of pressure drop [26][27][28][67][68][69][70][71][72][73]. In the studies by Banerjee et al [67], Hussaini and Wang [68] and Spernjak et al [27], increases in the inlet reactant gas RH were observed to increase the presence of liquid water in the channels.…”

A segmented cell approach for studying the effects of serpentine flow field parameters on PEMFC current distribution

“…For the two-phase flow case, it is already difficult to find a correlation between pressure drop and flow parameters. For a fuel cell, a general and predictive correlation has not yet been published [56]. Nevertheless, the ratio between the measured pressure drops for the 6-and 10-channel serpentine designs is approximately 3.4, a value that is very close to the estimated one.…”

Interaction between Liquid Droplet Growth and Two-Phase Pressure Drop in PEM Fuel Cell Flow Channels

“…In one approach, the two-phase mixture is treated as a pseudo single phase fluid and properties such as viscosity and density are weighted based on quality. This model is known as the homogeneous equilibrium model and has been reported to be more accurate at higher mass qualities [20,21,22].…”