ECS Meeting Abstracts, 13(MA2012-02), p. 1336-1336, 2012
DOI: 10.1149/ma2012-02/13/1336
The Electrochemical Society, ECS Transactions, 2(50), p. 207-219, 2013
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In fuel cells, a homogeneous distribution of gas flow is desirable for optimal performance. The gas diffusion layer (GDL) often used in PEM-like fuel cells is one of the key elements responsible for a uniform distribution under channels and ribs. To assess this ability of GDL-materials, characteristic numbers, e.g. the permeability, are often introduced. In this paper, we simulate one and two component gas flow through a virtual GDL material under operating conditions of a HT-PEFC. We observe the influence of discretization and viscosity choice on the macroscopic output of the Lattice-Boltzmann algorithm we apply. To achieve this, we first study their effects on empty square channels and finally transfer our interpretation to the output of a GDL simulation.