P66 - Ultrasonic Sensor System for Water Localization in Fuel Cells: Investigation of Operational Conditions

Abstract

Water management is important for an efficient operation of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In particular, accumulation of liquid water in the flow channels must be prevented to ensure uniform distribution of the reactants and consequently high performance of the cell. It has been shown in ex-situ experiments, that liquid water drops on the flow field can be localized using ultrasonic guided waves. In this contribution, we show that temperature is the major influence on the measurement. We also demonstrate that the influence of temperature can be reduced by tracking the signal baseline with the temperature.