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Modeling and Simulating of Water Distribution in Different Layers of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

Kalantari, Hossein | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 45192 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Baghalha, Morteza
  7. Abstract:
  8. A two-dimensional, two-phase, nonisothermal model was developed in this work to investigate the water transport characteristic and water distribution in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). Emphasis is placed on exploring the water distribution in different layers of DMF. The water and methanol crossover through the membrane were considered with the effect of diffusion, electro-osmotic drag, and convection. Governing equations including the prton and electron transport, continuity, momentum, species transport for methanol, water, and gases species, and the auxiliary equations are coupled to determine the output parameters. These parameters are the concentration distribution of the species, cell voltage, liquid and gas pressure distribution, thermal distribution, and the liquid saturation distribution. The evaporation/condensation rates are formulated in a manner to capture the non-equilibrium effects between the liquid and gas phases. Validation with the experimental data shows that the modeling results agree well with this data. A parametric study is then performed to examine the effects of the structure design of the gas diffusion layer (GDL), the contact angle, and the cell voltage on liquid saturation in different layers. An increase of the contact angle and GDL permeability in the cathode side causes a decrease of the water saturation in different layers of cathode while this permutation in the anode side leads to an increase of the water saturation in different layers of anode. Furthermore, in the cathode side, either the higher cell voltage or the lower current density decreases the water saturation while, in the onode side, a decrease of either the cell voltage or the current density leads to an increase of the water saturation
  9. Keywords:
  10. Methanol Fuel Cell ; Modeling ; Sensitivity Analysis ; Water Distribution System

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