Interaction of Droplet and Sidewalls with Modified Surfaces in a PEMFC Gas Flow Channel

A Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is a clean and highly efficient way of power generation used primarily for transportation applications. Hydrogen and air are supplied to the fuel cell through gas channels, which also remove liquid water generated in the fuel cell. The clogged channels prevent reactant transport to the electrochemically active sites which comprise one of the channel walls and thus, degrading the performance of the cell. Proper management of the product water is a current topic of research interest in commercialization of fuel cell vehicles. Liquid water, produced as by-product of the fuel cell reaction, can clog the gas channels easily since surface tension of water is significant at this length scale. In a PEMFC channel cross-section, water is assumed to be produced in the channel at the center along the flow axis. This assumption is primarily valid and extensively used for experimental purposes. However in a real PEMFC, the water entry is not constrained at the channel center. Hence, more investigations are made using water entry at channel corner (land region) which resulted in contradicting prior results for the water feature behavior for all relevant PEMFC operating conditions, leading to adverse two-phase flow behavior- including slug blockage and fluctuations at channel end. Very limited research is available to study the effect of gas channel surface modifications on the two-phase flow behavior and local PEMFC performance. In this study, the droplet-sidewall dynamic interactions and two-phase local pressure drop across the water droplet present in a PEMFC channel with trapezoidal geometries with surface modifications are studied. These surface modifications include micro-grooves that possess a hybrid wetting regime that will initiate and guide the water feature at channel ends to eject with general ease. Slugs are reduced to films after ejection and thus channel blockage is avoided overcoming the problems caused by water influx at channel corner or under the land