Three‐dimensional simulation of water droplet movement in PEM fuel cell flow channels with hydrophilic surfaces

Water management is one of the critical issues in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, and proper water management requires effective removal of liquid water generated in the cathode catalyst layer, typically in the form of droplets through cathode gas stream in the cathode flow channel. It has been reported that a hydrophilic channel sidewall with a hydrophobic membrane electrode assembly (MEA) surface would have less chance for water accumulation on the MEA surface. Therefore, a comprehensive study on the effect of surface wettability properties on water droplet movement in flow channels has been conducted numerically. In this study, the water droplet movements in a straight flow channel with a wide range of hydrophilic surface properties and effects of inlet air velocities are analyzed by using three‐dimensional computational fluid dynamics method coupled with the volume‐of‐fluid (VOF) method for liquid–gas interface tracking. The results show that the water droplet movement is greatly affected by the channel surface wettability and air flow conditions. With low contact angle, droplet motion is slow due to more liquid–wall contact area. With high air flow velocities, increasing the contact angle of the channel surface results in faster liquid water removal due to lesser liquid–wall contact area. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.