The non-reacting flow field and the movement of sand particles inside a 30MW circulating fluidized bed combustor is numerically simulated via the finite volume method. The primary air is supplied through 23x23 array of nozzles located on the bottom and the secondary air is supplied through 12 inlet pipes located on the side walls. The steady state velocity field shows that a very complex flow pattern is formed in the lower part of the combustor. As the gas moves upward, the velocity magnitude decreases and the gas exits the combustor after hitting the top wall. To investigate the behavior of sand particles with different diameters, a particle tracking calculation is performed by introducing sand particles continuously at the z=3 m plane. For the given air flow rate condition, sand particles smaller than 0.3 mm show a complex movement pattern near the secondary air inlet and then rise toward the outlet.

The volume of fluid method is used to investigate the behavior of a liquid water slug in a PEMFC trapezoidal gas channel(GC) with a open angle of 60 degrees. To evaluate the effect of the contact angle of the top and side walls, the gas diffusion layer water coverage ratio(GWCR) and water volume fraction(WVF) in a inspection control volume are analyzed. As the contact angle increases, GWCR increases and WVF decreases. The cases with the GC contact angle of 60 and 80 degrees show the more favorable water removal characteristics compared to the other cases in a GC flooding condition.

In a PEMFC gas channel with a trapezoidal cross-section, the effect of air and water inlet velocities on water removal characteristics is numerically studied via the volume of fluid(VOF) method. When the channel wall contact angle is 60 degrees, the air inlet velocities higher than 2.5 m/s are advantageous to obtain lower GDL surface water coverage ratio(WCR). The WCR increases as the wall contact angle increases to 90 or 120 degrees due to the relatively lower surface tension force. In overall, WCR decreases as the air inlet velocity increases and WCR increases as the water inlet velocity increases.

The water removal characteristics in a PEMFC trapezoidal gas channel are investigated with the volume of fluid (VOF) method. For the case of wall contact angle of 60 degree, liquid water attaches on the top wall and moves toward the exit. In contrast, liquid water moves along the channel side corner or GDL surface irregularly for the higher wall contact angles. The hydrophillic wall contact angle of 60 degrees provides more favorable diffusion of reactants to cathode reaction sites as the GDL surface water coverage ratio approaches zero even if the water flow rate increases.

The effect of PEMFC trapezoidal channel wall contact angle on water removal characteristics is investigated with the volume of fluid (VOF) method. Two different contact angles 60 and 90 degrees are selected. In the case of the side and top wall contact angle of 60 degrees, stable semi-spherical droplets move along the top wall slowly. In contrast, complex shaped droplets move along the lower edge in the case of 90 degrees. Moreover, it is shown that very complex interaction patterns between different droplets which introduced into the channel at different times.

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is applied to study the behavior of liquid droplet inside a PEMFC gas channel. To validate the fluid-fluid interaction model, the relationship between the pressure jump across the interface and the bubble radius is investigated for a static bubble to confirm the Laplace’s law. To evaluate the fluid-solid interaction model, static contact angle is calculated by changing the interaction parameter. Also, a constant gravitational force is applied to study the temporal evolution of liquid droplet placed on the bottom wall in a three dimensional periodic channel.

This paper presents the approach of design parameters optimization based on Taguchi method for the uniformity of outlet pressure in a plasma discharge chamber. The key issue of a plasma discharge chamber is to have the uniformity of outlet pressure which can make a high performance of surface treatment. To extend the length of a outlet from 60mm to 250mm with the uniformity, This study optimally designed the middle holes, outlet width and height, and diameter of the second chamber by using SolidWorks and flow simulation tool. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.

The volume of fluid method is applied to study the effects of the gas channel wall contact angle on the removal characteristics of a water slug in a right angle PEMFC gas channel. While maintaining the same GDL surface contact angle, two different contact angle distributions on the control area in the corner region are compared via the water coverage ratio and water volume fraction. The water coverage ratios of the hydrophobic channel corner case mainly show smaller values than that of the hydrophilic case except around 27 ms. The water volume fraction of the hydrophobic corner case is supposed to drop down quickly around 27 ms due to the dynamic movement of the liquid water compared to the hydrophilic case. In overall, the hydrophobic corner case shows better water slug removal characteristics.

The volume of fluid (VOF) method is applied to study the effects of the gas channel cross-section shape on the removal characteristics of a water slug in a trapezoidal PEMFC gas channel. Two different open angles 50 and 60 degrees are selected to investigate the effect of cross-section shape on the behavior of a liquid water slug. In comparison to the 50 degrees case, the water slug is removed slightly faster for the 60 degrees case.

To study the effects of the gas channel wall contact angle on the behavior of a liquid water slug, numerical simulations are performed with the volume of fluid (VOF) method. Two different contact angle combinations on the side and top channel walls are selected. In comparison to the reference case, the water slug is removed faster when the hydrophobic contact angle is applied selectively in the corner section.

Numerical simulations of liquid water droplets interacting with gas channel walls in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell are performed with the volume of fluid (VOF) method. To investigate the effect of channel wall wettability, the contact angles of gas diffusion layer (GDL) and the side/top walls are varied as 45, 90, and 140 degrees. Two different water injection inlet locations are selected to investigate the interactions of liquid water with the different gas channel walls. As the GDL contact angle increases, the GDL surface water coverage ratio and the water volume ratio decrease. When the water injection hole is located near the side wall, the GDL surface water coverage ratio decreases and the water volume ratio increases as the contact angle of the side and top walls decreases. In conclusion, the GDL surface water coverage ratio and the water volume ratio may compete with each other to determine the fuel cell performance.

The dynamic interaction of liquid droplets emerging from the gas diffusion layer surface is modeled to study the behavior of liquid water inside the gas channel of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with the volume of fluid (VOF) formulation. The surface contact angle of gas diffusion layer is varied as 45, 90, and 140 degrees. The air inlet velocity in the gas channel is varied as 5, 10, and 15 m/s. The water inlet velocity from micro pores is varied as 0.5, 1, and 2 m/s. As the contact angle increases, water coverage ratio increases. As the air inlet velocity and the water inlet velocity increase, water droplets move faster toward the channel exit as evidenced from the water front location plots. In summary, the hydrophobic wall contact angle and higher air/water inlet velocities provide better water removal characteristics.

A three dimensional numerical analysis was performed to study the effect of cathode inlet relative humidity on PEMFC performance characteristics. As cathode inlet relative humidity increases from 0 percent to 60 percent, the current density increases. Then, as cathode inlet relative humidity increases from 60 percent to 100 percent, the current density decreases. The two dimensional contour map analysis shows that the flooding phenomenon in cathode gas channel, gas diffusion layer, and catalyst layer leads to the decrease of current density.

A numerical analysis was performed to study PEMFC performance characteristics depending on the flow direction of cathode reactant gas, cathode relative humidity, and porosity of gas diffusion layer. As cathode relative humidity decreases and porosity increases, current density increases due to better diffusion of reactant gas to cathode surface. As current density increases, power density increases initially and then decreases with its maximum located around current density value of 2.2 Amperes per square centimeter. From the analysis of current density distribution inside membrane, the counter-flow cases show more uniform profile across the membrane than the co-flow cases due to more uniform reactant gas supply.