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Elucidating through-plane liquid water profile in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Wang, Yun; Chen, Ken S.

In this paper, a numerical model incorporating micro-porous layers (MPLs) is presented for simulating water transport within the gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and MPLs as well as across their interfaces in a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell. One-dimensional analysis is conducted to investigate the impacts of MPL and GDL properties on the liquid-water profile across the anode GDL-MPL and cathode MPL-GDL regions. Furthermore, two-dimensional numerical simulations that take MPLs into account are also carried out to elucidate liquid water transport, particularly through-plane liquid-water profile in a PEM fuel cell. Results from case studies are presented. ©The Electrochemical Society.