Effect of anisotropic structure of gas diffusion layer on the cathode dead-end mode of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for the submarine

Abstract

Experimental and numerical studies of the effects of an anisotropic gas diffusion layer (GDL) on the performance of a dead-end fuel cell system were carried out. The performance of a dead-end mode fuel cell system with aligning the machine direction of an anisotropic GDL in parallel (0o GDL) and perpendicular (90o GDL) direction to the main flow direction of the channel was examined. First, the deformation and intrusion of 0o and 90o GDLs were compared. Then, the permeability of each GDL under the rib part was measured. Using measured values, a model to analyze the current density distribution within the cell was developed. Lastly, the performance of the dead-end mode fuel cell was analyzed using both GDLs. The performance of the fuel cell improved by 3.6 % when the 90(o) GDL was introduced to the dead-end mode fuel cell compared with that of the 0(o) GDL. Moreover, the purge interval of the 90(o) GDL was 1.7 times longer than that of the 0(o) GDL. Therefore, the cell performance and utilization of fuel improve when the 90(o) GDL was introduced to the dead-end fuel cell system.