Temperature Effect on Moving Water Droplets at the Channel of ‎PEMFC by Multi-component Multiphase Lattice Boltzmann Method

Abstract

In this paper, a multi-component multiphase pseudopotential Lattice Boltzmann method with multi relaxation time (MRT) collision operator is presented to examine the dynamic behavior of liquid droplets movement and coalescence process in the gas channel of PEMFC. In the numerical method, the forcing term is improved to achieve a high-density ratio and thermodynamic consistency. First, the density ratio, Laplace law, and contact angle are validated with previous studies. Then, different parameters, such as operating temperature, pressure difference, surface contact angle, the radius of droplets, and distance between two droplets on the droplet movement and coalescence process are studied. The results revealed by rising temperature from 30 to 80 degrees, the speed of drop increases around 6 percent. The simulation results indicated that the rising of pressure gradient increases the gas flow velocity on the channel and leads to increasing the shear force and eventually faster movement of the droplet on the gas channel. Also, investigation of various contact angles shows that a hydrophilic surface causes a resistance force between the droplet and the wall and delays the removal of droplets. Moreover, droplet coalescence is useful for droplet movement because of increasing the velocity gradient on top of the droplet; consequently, the shear force on the droplet is raised during coalescence.

Keywords

• lattice boltzmann method
• multi-component multiphase
• coalescence process
• fuel cell channel
• liquid water droplet ‎interaction