Journal
JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES
Volume 196, Issue 23, Pages 10057-10068Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2011.08.084
Keywords
PEM fuel cell; Two-phase flow; Slug flow; Water management; Pressure drop
Funding
- National Science Foundation [CBET-0754715]
- Department of Energy [DE-SC-0002097]
- Princeton University under U.S. Department of Energy [DE-AC02-76-CHO-3073]
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A microfluidic device is employed to emulate water droplet emergence from a porous electrode and slug formation in the gas flow channel of a PEM fuel cell. Liquid water emerges from a 50 mu m pore forming a droplet; the droplet grows to span the entire cross-section of a microchannel and transitions into a slug which detaches and is swept downstream. Droplet growth, slug formation, detachment, and motion are analyzed using high-speed video images and pressure-time traces. Slug volume is controlled primarily by channel geometry, interfacial forces, and gravity. As water slugs move downstream, they leave residual micro-droplets that act as nucleation sites for the next droplet-to-slug transition. Residual liquid in the form of micro-droplets results in a significant decrease in slug volume between the very first slug formed in an initially dry channel and the ultimate steady-state slug. A physics-based model is presented to predict slug volumes and pressure drops for slug detachment and motion. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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