Comparison of numerical predictions and experimental results of water percolation in PEM fuel cell porous transport layers

A series of numerical simulation using a three dimensional version of the network model are presented. These numerical simulations are carried on in similar conditions occurring during a pseudo Hele-Shaw experimental setup. The numerical simulations using the network model are compared with experimental data through a new scaling of the water percolation in porous media which is based on the ratio dissipated energy. The morphology and wettability of the PTL are tuned to fitting the experiment by using the proposed scaling. Once the fitting between numerical and experimentally is obtained, such PTL structure information can be used in different types of simulations where the conditions are representative of the fuel cell operating conditions.