TY - GEN
T1 - Two-phase flow and transport in the interdigitated air cathode of proton exchange membrane fuel cells
AU - Wang, Z. H.
AU - Wang, C. Y.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2000 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). All rights reserved.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - The two-phase flow and transport in an interdigitated air cathode is studied numerically by applying the multiphase, multicomponent transport model previously developed for conventional air cathodes. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique is used to solve the two-dimensional model for the interdigitated air cathode, and the contours of oxygen concentration, water vapor concentration and liquid water saturation as well as the velocity vector fields of gas and liquid phases are obtained. A polarization curve is presented which includes both the single- and two-phase operating regimes. It is found that the threshold critical current density at which the two-phase zone begins to appear inside the porous cathode is higher than that of the conventional air cathode. The maximum liquid water saturation is found to be about 0.045 for a dry inlet at an average current density of 2.07A/cm2. Both gas diffusion and convection play significant roles in oxygen supply and water removal. A higher inlet relative humidity produces a more extensive two-phase zone in the interdigitated air cathode.
AB - The two-phase flow and transport in an interdigitated air cathode is studied numerically by applying the multiphase, multicomponent transport model previously developed for conventional air cathodes. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique is used to solve the two-dimensional model for the interdigitated air cathode, and the contours of oxygen concentration, water vapor concentration and liquid water saturation as well as the velocity vector fields of gas and liquid phases are obtained. A polarization curve is presented which includes both the single- and two-phase operating regimes. It is found that the threshold critical current density at which the two-phase zone begins to appear inside the porous cathode is higher than that of the conventional air cathode. The maximum liquid water saturation is found to be about 0.045 for a dry inlet at an average current density of 2.07A/cm2. Both gas diffusion and convection play significant roles in oxygen supply and water removal. A higher inlet relative humidity produces a more extensive two-phase zone in the interdigitated air cathode.
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U2 - 10.1115/IMECE2000-1363
DO - 10.1115/IMECE2000-1363
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85119666721
T3 - ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Proceedings (IMECE)
SP - 27
EP - 33
BT - Heat Transfer
PB - American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
T2 - ASME 2000 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, IMECE 2000
Y2 - 5 November 2000 through 10 November 2000
ER -