• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.2 no.4 s.8
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• pp.78-85
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• 2006

Selection of flow channel in the separation plate of PEMFC is very important parameter to improve its performance and reduce parasite loss. Flow patterns in the channel have great influence on the transport of hydrogen and air and removal of water generated from electrochemical reaction in diffusion layer. In this study. fluid flow in flow channel with parallel and interdigitated patterns are simulated three dimensionally on full flow domain including anode and cathode channel together. The numerical results show that the fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel represents better performance than that with parallel flow channel due to its strong convective transport across the gas diffusion layer. But the pressure drop in parallel flow channel is much more than that in interdigitated flow channel. And effects of temperature and stoichiometric number on performance can be calculated and analyzed as well. Nomenclature.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.407-410
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• 2006

Selection of flow channel in the separation plate of PEMFC is very important parameter to improve its performance and reduce parasite loss. Flow patterns in the channel have great influence on the transport of hydrogen and all and water generated from electrochemical reaction in diffusion layer In this study, fluid flow in flow channel with parallel and interdigitated patterns are simulated three dimensionally on full flow domain including anode and cathode electrode together. The numerical results show that the fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel represents better performance than that with parallel flow channel due to its strong convective transport across the gas diffusion layer. But the pressure drop in parallel flow channel is much more than that in nterdigitated flow channel. The effect of temperature and stoichiometric number on performance can be calculated and analyzed as well.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2018

General polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC) operates at less than $80^{\circ}C$. Therefore liquid phase water resulting from electrochemical reaction accumulates and floods the cell which in turn increases the mass transfer loss. To prevent the flooding, it is common to employ serpentine flow channel, which can efficiently export liquid phase water to the outlet. The major drawback of utilizing serpentine flow channel is the large pressure drop that happens between the inlet and outlet. On the other hand, in the high temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEMFC), since the operating temperature is 130 to $180^{\circ}C$, the generated water is in the state of gas, so the flooding phenomenon is not taken into consideration. In HT-PEMFCs parallel flow channel with lower pressure drop between the inlet and outlet is employed therefore, in order to circulate hydrogen and air in the cell less pumping power is required. In this study we analyzed HT-PEMFC's different flow channels by parallel computation using previously developed 3-D isothermal model. All the flow channels had an active area of $25cm^2$. Also, we numerically compared the performance of HT-PEMFC parallel flow channel with different manifold area and Rib interval against the original serpentine flow channel. Results of the analysis are shown in the form of three-dimensional contour polarization curves, flow characteristics in the channel, current density distribution in the Membrane, overpotential distribution in the catalyst layer, and hydrogen and oxygen concentration distribution. As a result, the performance of a real area fuel cell was predicted.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.170-177
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• 2006

Optimum design of flow channel in the separation plate of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell is very prerequisite to reduce concentration over potential at high current region and remove the water generated in cathode effectively. In this paper, fully 3 dimensional computational model which solves anode and cathode flow fields simultaneously is developed in order to compare the performance of fuel cell with parallel and interdigitated flow channels. Oxygen and water concentration and pressure drop are calculated and i-V performance characteristics are compared between flows with two flow channels. Results show that performance of fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel is hi민or than that with parallel flow channel at high current region because hydrogen and oxygen in interdigitated flow channel are transported to catalyst layer effectively due to strong convective transport through gas diffusion layer but pressure drop is larger than that in parallel flow channel. Therefore Trade-off between power gain and pressure loss should be considered in design of fuel cell with interdigitated flow channel.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.472-473
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• 2008

Flow boiling in parallel microchannels has received attention as an effective heat sink mechanism for power-densities encountered in microelectronic equipment. the bubble dynamics coupled with boiling heat transfer in microchannels is still not well understood due to the technological difficulties in obtaining detailed measurements of microscale two-phase flows. In this study, complete numerical simulation is performed to further clarify the dynamics of flow boiling in microchannels. The level set method for tracking the liquid-vapor interface is modified to include the effects of phase change and contact angle. The method is further extended to treat the no-slip and contact angle conditions on the immersed solid. Also, the reverse flow observed during flow boiling in parallel microchannels has been investigated. Based on the numerical results, the effects of channel shape and inlet area restriction on the bubble growth, reverse flow and heat transfer are quantified.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.512-519
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• 2009

Flow pulsation in the gap connecting with two parallel channels is investigated by RANS and URANS approaches. The two parallel channels are connected by a small channel called for a gap. The parallel channels are designed to have different cross section area with its ratio of 0.5. Computations are conducted using a CFX 11.0 code. The bulk Reynolds number is 60,000. Predicted results are compared with the previous experimental data. Mean velocity profile at the center of gap region are compared with experiments for its validation. Spectral analysis on the lateral velocity in the center of the gap was performed. Auto correlation for the axial-flow velocity pattern was presented. The unsteady structure of the flow pulsation was visualized in the region of the gap in the parallel channel.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2810-2815
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• 2008

Flow pulsation in the gap connecting with two parallel channels is investigated by RANS and URANS approaches. The two parallel channels are connected by a small channel called for a gap. The parallel channels are designed to have different cross section area with its ratio of 0.5. Computations are conducted using a CFX 11.0 code. The bulk Reynolds number is 60,000. Predicted results are compared with the previous experimental result. Mean velocity profile at the center of gap region are compared with experiments for its validation. Spectral analysis on the lateral velocity in the center of the gap is presented. Auto and cross correlation for the axial-flow velocity pattern are presented. The unsteady structure of the flow pulsation was visualized in the region of the gap in the parallel channel.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.217-239
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• 2018

This paper examined the MHD and thermal behavior of unsteady mixed convection flow of a rotating fluid in a porous parallel plate channel in the presence of Hall current and heat source. The exact solutions of the concentration, energy and momentum equations are obtained. The influence of each governing parameter on non dimensional velocity, temperature, concentration, skin friction coefficient, rate of heat transfer and rate of mass transfer at the porous parallel plate channel surfaces is discussed. During the course of numerical computation, it is observed that as Hall current parameter and Soret number at the porous channel surfaces increases, the primary and secondary velocity profiles are increases while the primary and secondary skin friction coefficients are increases at the cold wall and decreases at the heated wall. In particular, it is noticed that a reverse trend in case of heat source parameter.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2014

Research on flow channel designs of the separate plates is necessary to improve the PEMFC performance. On concerning the performance improvement of PEMFC, many recent studies have been made on the interdigitated flow channel using forced convection. In this paper, the interdigitated flow channel is similarly applied on the parallel flow channel with a baffle or baffles. Numerical analysis is performed by using a commercial multiphysics program, which is called COMSOL, on the parallel channel with the fully blocked baffle(FBB) and there are three variables, the position of baffle, flow direction and flow velocity. Each power of the variables is resulted from the fixed 0.5V, the voltage from 80 percents of the maximum power. Finally, based on the full factorial designs(FFD), one of the design of experiments(DOE), each factor which has several levels lead to the conclusion. The analysis of the main effects and interactions of the factors is useful to find the most influenced factor to improve the power.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.245-261
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• 1998

In order to validate the variable aperture channel model that can deal with the non-uniform How rate in flow domain, migration experiments of conservative tracer were performed in two artificial fractures, a parallel and a wedge-shaped fracture. These different fracture shapes were designed to give different flow pattern. The fractures were made from a transparent acrylic plastic plate and a granite slab with dimensions of 10 $\times$ 61 $\times$ 61 cm. Uranine (Fluorescein sodium salt) was used as a conservative tracer. The volumetric flow rates of uranine feed solution were 30 mL/ hr, giving a mean residence time in the fracture of approximately 24 hours for the parallel fracture and 34 hours for the wedge-shaped fracture. The migration plumes of uranine were photographed to obtain profiles in space and time for movement of a tracer in fractures. The photographed migration plume was greatly affected by the geometric shape of fractures. The variable aperture channel model could have predicted the experimental results for the parallel fracture with a large accuracy. It is expected that the variable aperture channel model would be effective to predict the transport of the contaminant, especially, with the flow rate variation in a fracture.