Green
vehicles that employ proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel
cells as the power source of their propulsion systems have been developed
to an advanced stage in recent years. Nevertheless, additional fundamental
studies are required for further development of PEM fuel cells. Anisotropy
of carbon paper microstructures can greatly affect the water droplet
behavior through the porous gas diffusion layers (GDLs) of these fuel
cells; this is investigated in the current paper for the first time.
For performing such an investigation, the movement of three different
water droplets with three dissimilar radiuses through three carbon
paper GDLs with three dissimilar anisotropy levels has been analyzed
by several three-dimensional (3D) lattice Boltzmann simulations. The
analysis results illustrate that for water droplets with smaller initial
radiuses (15 or 20 μm) increasing the microstructure anisotropy
level (i.e., making carbon fibers more in-plane aligned) makes droplet
ejection faster. However, for water droplets with larger initial radiuses
(25 μm), increasing the anisotropy level does not assist water
droplet removal from the GDL.
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