Journal article
Deterministic contact mechanics model applied to electrode interfaces in polymer electrolyte fuel cells and interfacial water accumulation
Journal of power sources, v 241, pp 379-387
01 Nov 2013
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
An elastic deterministic contact mechanics model is applied to the compressed micro-porous (MPL) and catalyst layer (CL) interfaces in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) to elucidate the interfacial morphology. The model employs measured two-dimensional surface profiles and computes local surface deformation and interfacial gap, average contact resistance, and percent contact area as a function of compression pressure. Here, we apply the model to one interface having a MPL with cracks and one with a crack-free MPL. The void size distributions and water retention curves for the two sets of CL|MPL interfaces under compression are also computed. The CL|MPL interfaces with cracks are observed to have higher roughness, resulting in twice the interfacial average gap compared to the non-cracked interface at a given level of compression. The results indicate that the interfacial contact resistance is roughly the same for cracked or non-cracked interfaces due to cracks occupying low percentage of overall area. However, the cracked CL|MPL interface yields higher liquid saturation levels at all capillary pressures, resulting in an order of magnitude higher water storage capacity compared to the smooth interface. The van Genuchten water retention curve correlation for log-normal void size distributions is found to fit non-cracked CL|MPL interfaces well.
•Deterministic contact mechanics model applied to catalyst layer|MPL interface.•Direct imaging of sample surface topology for true morphology.•The cracked CL|MPL interface can store more water than the uncracked.•Cracks cover little contact area and cause minimal interfacial resistance.•van Genuchten water retention correlation shows a good agreement.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Deterministic contact mechanics model applied to electrode interfaces in polymer electrolyte fuel cells and interfacial water accumulation
- Creators
- I.V. Zenyuk - Carnegie Mellon UniversityE.C. Kumbur - Drexel UniversityS. Litster - Carnegie Mellon University
- Publication Details
- Journal of power sources, v 241, pp 379-387
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000323093700048
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84878222062
- Other Identifier
- 991019168963504721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Chemistry, Physical
- Electrochemistry
- Energy & Fuels
- Materials Science, Multidisciplinary