Flooding Visualization and Enhanced Water Management in PEM Fuel Cell

Internal water management in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell has been considered as one of most significant key factors for its performance enhancement. It is because relative humidity of hydrogen and air is strongly related to the performance of PEM fuel cell in terms of H⁺ movement within the membrane. In addition, production of H₂O by chemical reactions can bring several problems during concentration loss region since combination of vapor in supplying air and byproduct of chemical reaction should lead to excess H₂O remaining in PEM fuel cell, resulting flooding phenomena which may block air flow channels. Therefore, in order to understand and manage such phenomena to enhance the performance of PEM fuel cell, especially under concentration loss region, this paper focuses on the visualization of the flooding phenomena and application of the modified flow path on the cathode separator for flooding reduction.