Visualization study of cathode flooding with different operating conditions in a PEM unit fuel cell

Visualization technique was used to better understand the water build-up phenomena on the cathode side of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) unit fuel cell. In this study, a transparent PEM unit fuel cell with an active area of 25 cm² was designed and fabricated to allow for the visualization of cathode channel with fuel cell performance characteristics. Two-phase flow due to the electrochemical reaction of fuel cell was experimentally investigated. The images photographed by CCD camera with various cell temperatures (30-50°C) and different inlet humidification levels were presented in this study. Results indicated that the flooding on the cathode side first occurs near the exit of cathode flow channel. As the fuel cell operating temperature increases, it was found that water droplets tend to evaporate easily because of increased saturation vapor pressure and it can have an influence on lowering the flooding level. The approaches of this study can effectively contribute to the detailed researches on water transport phenomena including modeling water transport of an operating PEM fuel cell.