The Effect of Fiber Orientation on Stochastic Reconstruction and Permeability of a Carbon Paper Gas Diffusion Layer

Yuan Gao, Teng Jin, Xiaoyan Wu and Tong Zhang
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Yuan Gao: School of Automotive Studies, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China
Teng Jin: School of Automotive Studies, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China
Xiaoyan Wu: Research & Advanced Technology Dept., SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, Shanghai 201804, China
Tong Zhang: School of Automotive Studies, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 14, 1-13

Abstract: By analyzing the three-dimensional digital model of a real carbon paper gas diffusion layer (GDL) reconstructed by X-ray computed tomography (CT), it was found that fibers are not distributed at any angle but within a certain range. The fiber orientation can be represented by fiber pitch (i.e., the angle between a single fiber and the in-plane direction). The effect of fiber orientation on stochastic reconstruction and transport properties (permeability) was investigated in this paper to find which fiber pitch range can achieve a better GDL on fluid flow. First, the actual fiber pitch was measured by analyzing SGL-24BA images obtained by X-ray CT. Also, seven different ranges of fiber pitch were randomly chosen to reconstruct GDL. Then, the permeability of these digital models was calculated using the Lattice Bolzmann Method (LBM) and discussed to obtain the fiber pitch range of the optimal permeability. The results show that the mean fiber pitch of SGL-24BA is 2.40° and the individual values are all less than 6°, also, the permeability of the through-plane direction increases gradually as the range of fiber pitch increases, which can be used for the structural design of carbon paper GDL.

Keywords: carbon paper gas diffusion layer; fiber pitch; X-ray CT; stochastic reconstruction; permeability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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