Three‐dimensional simulation of water droplet movement in PEM fuel cell flow channels with hydrophilic surfaces
Three‐dimensional simulation of water droplet movement in PEM fuel cell flow channels with hydrophilic surfaces
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DOI：
10.1002/er.1776
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发表时间：
2011-10
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
B. Mondal;K. Jiao;Xianguo Li
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
B. Mondal;K. Jiao;Xianguo Li
水管理是质子交换膜燃料电池的关键问题之一，适当的水管理需要有效去除阴极催化剂层中产生的液态水，通常以液滴的形式通过阴极气流在阴极流道中形成。有报道称，具有疏水膜电极组件（MEA）表面的亲水通道侧壁具有较少的水在MEA表面积聚的机会。因此，对流道中表面润湿性对水滴运动的影响进行了全面的数值研究。本文采用三维计算流体动力学方法，结合流体体积法（VOF）对液气界面的跟踪，分析了具有广泛亲水表面特性的直流道中水滴的运动和入口气流速度的影响。结果表明，水滴的运动受通道表面润湿性和气流条件的影响较大。低接触角时，液滴运动缓慢，液壁接触面积大。在高气流速度下，由于液壁接触面积较小，增加通道表面的接触角可以更快地去除液态水。版权所有©2010 John Wiley & Sons， Ltd
Water management is one of the critical issues in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, and proper water management requires effective removal of liquid water generated in the cathode catalyst layer, typically in the form of droplets through cathode gas stream in the cathode flow channel. It has been reported that a hydrophilic channel sidewall with a hydrophobic membrane electrode assembly (MEA) surface would have less chance for water accumulation on the MEA surface. Therefore, a comprehensive study on the effect of surface wettability properties on water droplet movement in flow channels has been conducted numerically. In this study, the water droplet movements in a straight flow channel with a wide range of hydrophilic surface properties and effects of inlet air velocities are analyzed by using three‐dimensional computational fluid dynamics method coupled with the volume‐of‐fluid (VOF) method for liquid–gas interface tracking. The results show that the water droplet movement is greatly affected by the channel surface wettability and air flow conditions. With low contact angle, droplet motion is slow due to more liquid–wall contact area. With high air flow velocities, increasing the contact angle of the channel surface results in faster liquid water removal due to lesser liquid–wall contact area. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.