In-situ measurements of GDL effective permeability and under-land cross-flow in a PEM fuel cell

When reactant gases flow along a channel in serpentine flow field of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, there is a pressure difference between the adjacent channels and it produces an under-land cross-flow (or under-rib convection) from the higher pressure side to the lower pressure side through the gas diffusion layer (GDL). A unique experimental setup is developed for in-situ measurement of this cross-flow and the GDL effective permeability at the cathode side of a PEM fuel cell under dry and realistic humidified gas conditions. The non-Darcy effect, defined as a function of the Forchheimer number is studied and compared for both 1 mm and 2 mm land widths and both dry and humidified air conditions. Finally, a dimensional analysis is performed and the non-dimensional cross-flowrate is shown to increases linearly with the increase of the non-dimensional pressure difference. Copyright (C) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.