Lattice Boltzmann Simulation on Water Transport in Gdl of PEMFC

This study presents the effect of compression ratio on the dynamic behavior of liquid water transport in GDL. The experimental study investigates the emergence and growth of liquid droplet in the channel at various compression ratios by adopting direct visualization device. The results of the experiment show that water breakthrough occurs at the channel for low compression ratio, whereas it is observed at the channel/rib interface for high compression ratio. To determine the mechanism of water transport dynamics in GDL, multiphase lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is developed with simplified porous structure of GDL. The observation of LB simulation shows that the compression ratio significantly affects the water transport in GDL. The results indicate that the lower compression ratio is favorable for the fuel cell performance by reducing the water saturation in GDL. Both simulation and experiment present similar result.