TY - JOUR
T1 - Water management studies in PEM fuel cells, part IV
T2 - Effects of channel surface wettability, geometry and orientation on the two-phase flow in parallel gas channels
AU - Lu, Zijie
AU - Rath, Cody
AU - Zhang, Guangsheng
AU - Kandlikar, Satish G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is conducted in the Thermal Analysis, Microfluidics and Fuel Cell Laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Rochester Institute of Technology and is supported by the US Department of Energy under contract No. DE-FG36-07G017018 and No. DE-EE0000470 . The support provided by Jon Owejan and Thomas Trabold of General Motors is sincerely acknowledged.
PY - 2011/8
Y1 - 2011/8
N2 - In this study, the effects of channel surface wettability, cross-sectional geometry and orientation on the two-phase flow in parallel gas channels of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are investigated. Ex situ experiments were conducted in flow channels with three different surface wettability (hydrophilically coated, uncoated, and hydrophobically coated), three cross-sectional geometries (rectangular, sinusoidal and trapezoidal), and two orientations (vertical and horizontal). Flow pattern map, individual channel flow variation due to maldistribution, pressure drop and flow visualization images were used to analyze the two-phase flow characteristics. It is found that hydrophilically coated gas channels are advantageous over uncoated or slightly hydrophobic channels regarding uniform water and gas flow distribution and favoring film flow, the most desirable two-phase flow pattern in PEMFC gas channels. Sinusoidal channels favor film flow and have lower pressure drop than rectangular and trapezoidal channels, while the rectangular and trapezoidal channels behave similarly to each other. Vertical channel orientation is advantageous over horizontal orientation because the latter is more prone to slug flow, nonuniform liquid water distribution and instable operation.
AB - In this study, the effects of channel surface wettability, cross-sectional geometry and orientation on the two-phase flow in parallel gas channels of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are investigated. Ex situ experiments were conducted in flow channels with three different surface wettability (hydrophilically coated, uncoated, and hydrophobically coated), three cross-sectional geometries (rectangular, sinusoidal and trapezoidal), and two orientations (vertical and horizontal). Flow pattern map, individual channel flow variation due to maldistribution, pressure drop and flow visualization images were used to analyze the two-phase flow characteristics. It is found that hydrophilically coated gas channels are advantageous over uncoated or slightly hydrophobic channels regarding uniform water and gas flow distribution and favoring film flow, the most desirable two-phase flow pattern in PEMFC gas channels. Sinusoidal channels favor film flow and have lower pressure drop than rectangular and trapezoidal channels, while the rectangular and trapezoidal channels behave similarly to each other. Vertical channel orientation is advantageous over horizontal orientation because the latter is more prone to slug flow, nonuniform liquid water distribution and instable operation.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.226
DO - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.226
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79960902528
SN - 0360-3199
VL - 36
SP - 9864
EP - 9875
JO - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
IS - 16
ER -