Dynamic contact angle effects on gas-liquid behaviors in the cathode of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with stirred tank reactor design

Liquid water management is still a critical issue in the improvement of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance. In this work, for the first time, the liquid water behavior and transport inside the cathode of a PEMFC with a stirred tank reactor (STR) design, rather than the conventional PEMFC flow channel design, are numerically studied. The dynamic contact angle (DCA) is applied to multiple wall boundaries in the numerical model through a user-defined-function (UDF) code, i.e., STR-DCA model. Another numerical model with the static contact angle (SCA) and same operating conditions, i.e., STR-SCA model, is also developed for comparison. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed in the simulation to track the gas-liquid interface. The results show that the liquid water distribution and transport are significantly different between these two models, indicating the remarkable effects of DCA on the simulation results. It is also verified the capability of STR-PEMFC to reduce the liquid water flooding, showing the potential of this channel-less type fuel cell in the further development.