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Determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through X-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice Boltzmann simulation

An investigation of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer (GDL) based on the integration of X-ray micro-tomography and lattice Boltzmann (LB) simulation is presented. The method involves the generation of a 3D digital model of a carbon cloth GDL as manufactured using X-r...

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Main Authors: Pratap Rama, Yu Liu, Rui Chen, Hossein Ostadi, Kyle Jiang, Xiaoxian Zhang, Yuan Gao, Paolo Grassini, Davide Brivio
Format: Default Article
Published: 2011
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/18546
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author Pratap Rama
Yu Liu
Rui Chen
Hossein Ostadi
Kyle Jiang
Xiaoxian Zhang
Yuan Gao
Paolo Grassini
Davide Brivio
author_facet Pratap Rama
Yu Liu
Rui Chen
Hossein Ostadi
Kyle Jiang
Xiaoxian Zhang
Yuan Gao
Paolo Grassini
Davide Brivio
author_sort Pratap Rama (7119353)
collection Figshare
description An investigation of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer (GDL) based on the integration of X-ray micro-tomography and lattice Boltzmann (LB) simulation is presented. The method involves the generation of a 3D digital model of a carbon cloth GDL as manufactured using X-ray shadow images acquired through X-ray micro-tomography at a resolution of 1.74 µm. The resulting 3D model is then split into 21 volumes and integrated with a LB single-phase numerical solver in order to predict three orthogonal permeability tensors when a pressure difference is prescribed in the through-plane direction. The 21 regions exhibit porosity values in the range of 0.910–0.955, while the average fibre diameter is 4 µm. The results demonstrate that the simulated through-plane permeability is about four times higher than the in-plane permeability for the sample imaged and that the corresponding degrees of anisotropy for the two orthogonal off-principal directions are 0.22 and 0.27. The results reveal that flow channelling can play an important role in gas transport through the GDL structure due to the non-homogeneous porosity distribution through the material. The simulated results are also applied to generate a parametric coefficient for the Kozeny–Carman (KC) method of determining permeability. The current research reveals that by applying the X-ray tomography and LB techniques in a complementary manner, there is a strong potential to gain a deeper understanding of the microscopic fluidic phenomenon in representative models of porous fuel cell structures and how this can influence macroscopic transport characteristics which govern fuel cell performance.
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institution Loughborough University
publishDate 2011
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spelling rr-article-92283412011-01-01T00:00:00Z Determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through X-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice Boltzmann simulation Pratap Rama (7119353) Yu Liu (6938) Rui Chen (1257861) Hossein Ostadi (7121456) Kyle Jiang (1410325) Xiaoxian Zhang (1521013) Yuan Gao (159945) Paolo Grassini (7123211) Davide Brivio (3836035) Other engineering not elsewhere classified X-ray Micro-tomography Lattice Boltzmann Polymer electrolyte fuel cell Gas diffusion layer Carbon cloth Anisotropy Permeability Engineering not elsewhere classified An investigation of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer (GDL) based on the integration of X-ray micro-tomography and lattice Boltzmann (LB) simulation is presented. The method involves the generation of a 3D digital model of a carbon cloth GDL as manufactured using X-ray shadow images acquired through X-ray micro-tomography at a resolution of 1.74 µm. The resulting 3D model is then split into 21 volumes and integrated with a LB single-phase numerical solver in order to predict three orthogonal permeability tensors when a pressure difference is prescribed in the through-plane direction. The 21 regions exhibit porosity values in the range of 0.910–0.955, while the average fibre diameter is 4 µm. The results demonstrate that the simulated through-plane permeability is about four times higher than the in-plane permeability for the sample imaged and that the corresponding degrees of anisotropy for the two orthogonal off-principal directions are 0.22 and 0.27. The results reveal that flow channelling can play an important role in gas transport through the GDL structure due to the non-homogeneous porosity distribution through the material. The simulated results are also applied to generate a parametric coefficient for the Kozeny–Carman (KC) method of determining permeability. The current research reveals that by applying the X-ray tomography and LB techniques in a complementary manner, there is a strong potential to gain a deeper understanding of the microscopic fluidic phenomenon in representative models of porous fuel cell structures and how this can influence macroscopic transport characteristics which govern fuel cell performance. 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/18546 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Determination_of_the_anisotropic_permeability_of_a_carbon_cloth_gas_diffusion_layer_through_X-ray_computer_micro-tomography_and_single-phase_lattice_Boltzmann_simulation/9228341 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
spellingShingle Other engineering not elsewhere classified
X-ray
Micro-tomography
Lattice Boltzmann
Polymer electrolyte fuel cell
Gas diffusion layer
Carbon cloth
Anisotropy
Permeability
Engineering not elsewhere classified
Pratap Rama
Yu Liu
Rui Chen
Hossein Ostadi
Kyle Jiang
Xiaoxian Zhang
Yuan Gao
Paolo Grassini
Davide Brivio
Determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through X-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice Boltzmann simulation
title Determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through X-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice Boltzmann simulation
title_full Determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through X-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice Boltzmann simulation
title_fullStr Determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through X-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice Boltzmann simulation
title_full_unstemmed Determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through X-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice Boltzmann simulation
title_short Determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through X-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice Boltzmann simulation
title_sort determination of the anisotropic permeability of a carbon cloth gas diffusion layer through x-ray computer micro-tomography and single-phase lattice boltzmann simulation
topic Other engineering not elsewhere classified
X-ray
Micro-tomography
Lattice Boltzmann
Polymer electrolyte fuel cell
Gas diffusion layer
Carbon cloth
Anisotropy
Permeability
Engineering not elsewhere classified
url https://hdl.handle.net/2134/18546