Study on two-phase countercurrent flow and transport phenomenon in PEM of a direct methanol fuel cell

Based on the requirement of water management for a direct methanol fuel cell, this paper analyzes qualitatively the mechanism of occurrence and development of a two-phase countercurrent flow with corresponding transport phenomenon in the PEM. A one-dimensional, steady state quantitative model of heat and mass transfer in internal volumetric ohmic heating porous media saturated by liquid and vapor phases is developed. The effects of capillarity, electro-osmotic drag and phase change are included. Two im-portant formulas to calculate the theoretical length of two-phase zone δ t and determine the critical criterion |?ω /γ |cr for dryout in PEM are deduced. By use of these two dimen-sionless parameters, dryout of PEM can be easily predicted. Theoretical temperature, pressure and saturation profiles within the two-phase region are obtained numerically, which can help to explore the performance of a DMFC operating in its ohmic polarization region. The simulation results can be used to determine the catalyst content of cathode catalyst layer and the corresponding optimal thickness of PEM.