Influence of GDL Properties on Liquid Water Distribution and Temperature at CL Surface

摘要

Proper water management in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is critical to achieve a high power density and durability of construction materials. The location of water accumulation is influenced by the temperature distribution inside GDL. At the same time, the temperature distribution is affected by the liquid water distribution, because the liquid water inside GDL decrease the effective thermal resistance. Then, the objective of this study was set to clear the mutual interaction between the liquid water distributions and temperature fields. For this purpose, temperature at the CL surface was measured using thin film thermocouple fabricated by MEMS based technology, and liquid water inside the GDL was visualized by X-ray CT. The GDL thermal property, especially the thickness, was changed intentionally to get symmetrical temperature distributions, and the influence of the GDL thermal property on the liquid water distributions and temperature have been examined.