i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9

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Comparative analysis of two-phase flow in

sinusoidal channel of different geometric
configurations with application to PEMFC

Ikechukwu S. Anyanwu a, Yuze Hou a, Fuqiang Xi b, Xiaoyang Wang b,

Yan Yin a, Qing Du a, Kui Jiao a,*
a
State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, 135 Yaguan Road, Tianjin 300350, China
b
Weichai (Weifang) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd, 197A Fushou East Street, Weifang 261061, China

article info abstract

Article history: The droplet dynamics inside a sinusoidal channel for PEMFC (polymer electrolyte mem-
Received 25 December 2018 brane fuel cell) are investigated numerically using the VOF (volume of fluid) method. This
Received in revised form study is done for three geometrically different channels corresponding to various non-
17 March 2019 dimensional sinusoidal distances (50, 25, 12.5, 16.7 and 8.3). The effects of key parame-
Accepted 27 March 2019 ters like sinusoidal distance (pitch-amplitude ratio), radius of curvature and wall contact
Available online 16 April 2019 angle on the droplet removal in the flow channel are investigated. The performance of the
sinusoidal as compared to the conventional channel is studied based on droplet removal
Keywords: rate and GDL (gas diffusion layer) surface water coverage. It is found that the droplet
PEMFC (polymer electrolyte mem- removal rate increases with increasing sinusoidal distance and wall contact angle. In
brane fuel cell) addition, decrease in the sinusoidal distance results in a significant reduction in the
Sinusoidal channel average droplet speed and gas diffusion layer surface water coverage. It was also observed
Two-phase flow that broken bits of the droplet stuck on the wall corners accrued with a reduction in the
CFD (computational fluid dynamics) wall contact angle. The curvy nature of the side walls generally induces a secondary flow
VOF method effect which would be most beneficial in enhanced reactant diffusion and cell perfor-
mance. It is suggested that the sinusoidal distance and wall contact angle effect on two-
phase flow in a channel is highly significant. As such, needs to be considered for water
management in sinusoidal channels.
© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

and automotive applications [1]. This energy conversion de-

Introduction
The fuel cell is one of the emerging energy conversion systems
which have been considered to represent a suitable candidate
for solving future energy crisis. Typically the polymer elec-
trolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is considered one of the
most promising alternative technologies for both stationary
vice has been widely reported to have many attractive fea-
tures such as rapid start-up, high efficiency, zero greenhouse
gas emission and noiseless. All these unique features make
them a promising clean energy technology and highly
competitive with the conventional internal combustion en-
gines [2e4].

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kjiao@tju.edu.cn (K. Jiao).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.03.213
0360-3199/© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
13808 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9

Nevertheless, for PEMFCs to successfully compete with
conventional energy convertors there is still need for
improved performance, reduced losses and cost. The issue
of water flooding and flow dynamics within the gas flow
channel has remained a burning issue, which has always
received lots of attention. During operation the cathode
catalyst layer produces water as one of its byproducts and as
such the risk of over accumulation is almost unavoidable.
Excess of the liquid water can flood the cell, thereby leading
to an increased transport resistance of the reactants to the
active site which leads to corresponding performance
deterioration [5]. As such, liquid water removal from the gas
flow channels remains one of the best options needed to
realistically achieve high efficiency and stable reactant flow
distribution.
A number of experimental and numerical models have
been used to investigate liquid water transport in flow chan-
nels and gas diffusion layers of PEMFCs. The experimental
investigations are broadly classified into direct and indirect
methods [6]. Direct methods employ in-situ visualization
techniques such as direct optical visualization [6e12], X-ray
radiography [13e15], NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) im-
aging [16,17]; neutron radiography [18e21] to observe two-
phase flow behavior in gas flow channels. While indirect
methods adopt experimental techniques which evaluates
externally measured parameter such as pressure drop [22],
resident time [22] and HFR (high frequency resistance) [23,24]
to examine the two-phase flow of water.
Several authors in the field of numerical modeling have
attempted to model and simulate the two-phase flow phe-
nomena. Based on available literature on two-phase flow
phenomena in PEMFCs, air/liquid flow behavior can be cate-
gorized into the effects of channel design [25e27], operating
parameter influence [28], surface property effect [29,30] and
two-phase flow patterns [31,32]. In recent times, these studies
have been carried out using models such as the mixture model
[33,34], multi fluid model [35], LBM (lattice Boltzmann method)
[36e38] and VOF (volume of fluid) model [31,39e44]. These
models, evidently, have their limitations just as the mixture or
multi fluid model lacks the ability to accurately track droplet
shape, while the LBM models are not suitable for large scale
gas flow channels [45].

Fig. 1 e Computational domain of geometric channels under investigation (a) schematic illustration straight channel (Case 1)
(b) Sinusoidal 10 wave channel (c) Sinusoidal 5 wave channel (d) bottom view of sinusoidal channel.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9 13809

Table 1 e Quantitative summary of simulation cases investigated with speed, Reynold's number and bottom-wall contact
angle of 12.5 m/s, 411 and 120+ respectively.
Case No. Channel Radius Pitch Amplitude SD Contact angles Water exhaust GDL surface Droplet
type (mm) (mm) (mm) (
) side/top ( ) time (ms) duration (ms)
Hydrophobic conditionrowhead
1 Straight e e e e 120/120 9.298 9.298
2 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.1 25 120/120 9.061 9.061
3 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.2 12.5 120/120 12.866 12.866
4 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.3 8.3 120/120 11.068 11.068
5 Sinusoidal 1 5 0.1 50 120/120 9.194 9.194
6 Sinusoidal 1 5 0.2 25 120/120 12.963 12.963
7 Sinusoidal 1 5 0.3 16.7 120/120 13.371 13.371
8 Sinusoidal 2 5 0.1 50 120/120 9.269 9.269
9 Sinusoidal 2 5 0.2 25 120/120 13.06 13.06
10 Sinusoidal 2 5 0.3 16.7 120/120 13.238 13.238
Hydrophilic conditionrowhead
11 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.1 25 82/82 9.061 9.061
12 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.2 12.5 82/82 26.314 8.74
13 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.3 8.3 82/82 28.003 6.947
14 Sinusoidal 1 5 0.1 50 82/82 9.194 9.194
15 Sinusoidal 1 5 0.2 25 82/82 30.792 5.204
16 Sinusoidal 1 5 0.3 16.7 82/82 21.03 14.21
17 Sinusoidal 2 5 0.1 50 82/82 9.269 9.269
18 Sinusoidal 2 5 0.2 25 82/82 31.115 5.599
19 Sinusoidal 2 5 0.3 16.7 82/82 18.1 17.906
Hydrophilic conditionrowhead
20 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.1 25 45/82 9.061 9.061
21 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.2 12.5 45/82 40.5 40.5
22 Sinusoidal 1 2.5 0.3 8.3 45/82 43.6 43.6

Employing the VOF model, Mondal et al. [39] investigated

the effect of surface wettability properties and inlet air ve-
locity on water droplet flow in a channel. Their results showed
that channel surface wettability and inlet air flow conditions
had a tremendous effect on droplet movement. In a similar
vein, Song et al. [42] performed a VOF simulation on a
serpentine channel and reported that the channel wall prop-
erty has significant influence in water removal. Hou et al. [44]
analyzed water removal process in the anode and cathode
channel with an emphasis on water transport at the turning
part of anode serpentine channel of different shapes. They
reported that the semicircle-U channel had better water
exhaust capability compared to the rectangular-U channel
while an increase in hydrophobicity of walls led to better
water removal.
Sinusoidal (wavy) channel investigations as regards heat
transfer improvement have severally been investigated by
many authors [46e53]. They have consistently reported sig-
nificant improvement in heat/mass transfer with the adoption Fig. 2 e Grid independence test analysis.
of wavy channels. Hence, they are widely applied in heat
transfer/mixing enhancement applications [47e49]. In fact to
the straight ones. They reported that in terms of heat transfer
improve the heat sink performance, Sui and Teo, 2010 [46]
performance, the wavy design performed better than the
proposed the idea of using wavy microchannels instead of
straight channel of the same cross section. Additionally,
geometrical parameters of wavy channels in this regard have
also been extensively studied [50e53].
Table 2 e Droplet exhaust for mesh independence test.
However, while droplet dynamics in conventional (straight)
Model Number of Mesh elements Droplet exhaust channels has been greatly reported, including shapes like
cells (x  y  z) time (ms)
trapezoidal, parallelogram and triangular [43e45,54,55]; the
Mesh 1 336490 420  24  36 9.741 sinusoidal channel seems scarce in this direction. A few have
Mesh 2 191748 350  20  30 9.298 only studied the performance of sinusoidal channels in PEMFC
Mesh 3 95910 280  16  24 9.226
and reported a significant improvement in cell performance
13810 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9
Fig. 3 e Water removal rate in simulated cases (Cases 1e10
as shown in Table 1) at q ¼ 120o for all the walls including
GDL surface.
Fig. 4 e Time-averaged (a) Peak gas velocity inside the
channels (b) total pressure drop inside channels.
[56,59]. Kuo et al. [54] compared the wavelike flow channels to
the conventional (straight) channel and their results revealed
that there was an improvement in the cell power density. As
such, they asserted that the wavy channel boosted reactant
transport, improved convective heat transfer and enhanced
gas flow velocity. However, their work did not consider in de-
tails sinusoidal design parameters and the complex flow
physics inherent.
To the best of the author's knowledge, the water removal
rates in sinusoidal channels are yet to be investigated.
Therefore, in the present study, a 3D VOF model is used to
study the liquid water removal process in sinusoidal channels
of different geometric configurations. This is with a view to
understanding the flow dynamics and the underlying impli-
cations as regards PEMFC performance. Also, the effect of
varying the channel sinusoidal distance (pitch-amplitude
ratio), wall wettability and radius of curvature at the side wall
bends is also analyzed under similar operating conditions. For
each geometrical configuration, the temporal flow evolution
and water coverage ratios of the GDL surface, side and top
walls are presented. Rectangular straight channel geometry is
used in the computational analysis as a reference case and the
simulation results validated by comparison with results in the
literature. The base channel dimension 600 mm  400 mmis
used as a trade-off between the expected performance
enhancement of typical PEM fuel cell channels and related
issues of possible flooding. This design is adopted based on
the USDOE (United States Department of Energy) performance
targets for automotive applications [60].
Numerical model formulation
Model assumptions
The following assumptions are made in the VOF model
employed for the simulation in the flow channels:
 The flow is two-phase, transient and laminar.
 Mixed gas flows assumed as an ideal gas.
 Heat transfer and heat generation are negligible.
 Isothermal conditions and phase change effects have been
neglected.
 The bottom wall of the channel is assumed to be the gas
diffusion layer.
 Constant fluid properties and surface tension.
Governing equations for the VOF model
The governing equations solved using the VOF method is
expressed below:
Continuity equation
Since only two fluids are considered in this study, it is
assumed that the volume fraction of gas and liquid phase is
denoted as a1 and a2 respectively. Hence the interface be-
tween the two phases is tracked by solving the continuity
equation in every computational cell.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9 13811

v k2 rVa2
ðra2 Þ þ V$ðra2 !
nÞ¼0 (1) Fs ¼ s 1 (6)
vt 2
ðr1 þ r2 Þ
where r ðkg m
3 Þand ! n ðm s
1 Þdenote the liquid phase density
! 
and velocity vector respectively. While the volume fraction of k2 ¼ V$!
n 12 ¼ V$ð!
n w cosqw Þ þ t w sinqw (7)
the gas phase can be calculated using the relation:
where s ðJ s
2 Þdenotes the surface tension coefficient, k2 ðm
1 Þ
a1 þ a2 ¼ 1 (2) is the surface curvature of the gas/liquid interface, !n 12 is the
!
unit normal vector at two-phase interface, ! n w and t w denote
Momentum conservation equation unit normal to the wall and tangential to wall respectively,
The momentum conservation equation is while qw is the static contact angle to the walls.

 
vðr!nÞ !
þ V$ðr!
n!n Þ ¼ VР þ V$ m V!
n þ VnT þ rg þ Fs (3) Physical and computational domain
vt

where P (Pa) is the static pressure, m(Pa s) the dynamic vis-
cosity, g ðm s
2 Þ the acceleration due to gravity and FS (N) the
momentum source term connected to the surface tension
effect. The volume fraction is used as a weighing factor to
compute the density and dynamic viscosity of the mixture
and is given as:
r ¼ ð1
a2 Þr1 þ a2 r2
m ¼ ð1
a2 Þm1 þ a2 m2
Using the continuum surface force (CSF) model, the mo-
mentum source term which accounts for the surface tension
effect is expressed as:
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the 3D computational domain of
the present study, which includes the straight (Fig. 1 (a)), si-
nusoidal 10 wave channel (Fig. 1 (b)), and sinusoidal 5 wave
channel (Fig. 1 (c)) with its bottom view shown in Fig. 1 (d). The
base case channel dimension is 25 mm0.4 mm0.6 mm
along the x, y and z-direction, respectively, and the bottom
corresponds to the GDL surface while the confining walls are
(4) all assumed to be the interface between the bipolar plates
and channel. The sinusoidal geometric configurations are
(5) designed based on varying amplitude, radius and pitch; where
amplitude (a ¼ 0.1 mm, 0.2 mm, 0.3 mm), radius of curvature
(r ¼ 1 and 2 mm) and pitch (L ¼ 5 and 2.5 mm). The channel
length being 25 mm long is sectioned in two with 10 mm from

Fig. 5 e Velocity streamlines superimposed with vorticity magnitude contours along the y-z cross section of the sinusoidal
channel with x ¼ 12.5 mm (a) SD 25 (case 2) (b) SD 12.5 (case 3) (c) SD 8.3 (case 4) (d) SD 50 (case 5) (e) SD 25 (case 6) (f) SD 16.7
(case 7).
13812 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9

inlet having fewer grids (flow developing zone) and the
remaining part more grids (core flow zone); this was to allow
for a fully developed flow inside the channel.
Initial and boundary conditions
A no slip boundary condition is set at all channel walls at t ¼ 0,
also the inlet velocity and gauge pressure at t ¼ 0 is set at zero.
The uniform velocity profile is specified at the channel inlet
and the air flow at inlet is considered as fully developed before
meeting the patched droplet located 12 mm from the inlet
port. Surface wettability of the channels is adjusted by setting
different contact angles on the walls. The static contact angles
of the GDL surface for cases tested is set at 120+ , while the side
and top walls at 120+ , 82+ and 45+ ; and the no-slip wall
boundary conditions were duly set for both sides of the wall.
In all cases, the droplet size placed at the centerline and
12 mm from the inlet is 200 mm. The boundary condition at
inlet is set as velocity-inlet while a constant pressure at the
exit is set as pressure-outlet. Gravitational force is considered
along the negative y-direction.
comparison. Simulation result of three selected grid numbers
shows negligible difference in pressure drop across the channel
after droplet stabilization (Fig. (2)). Time step size of 10e6 s is
used in all cases, since the tested cases using step sizes of 10e5
and 10e6 s on selected grid numbers had negligible influence on
the results. Comparative analysis of simulated exhaust water
removal time checked against the works of Mondal et al., 2011
[39] and Hou et al., 2017 [44] showed very little difference
especially with the rectangular straight channel.
Based on the aforementioned results and comments, the
second meshing model was chosen for this numerical simu-
lations, due to the lesser number of elements for a faster so-
lution while yet meeting up with the required spatial
convergence. Same mesh size was used in all cases reported in
this study.
Results and discussion
A total of 22 cases are simulated using 9 different sinusoidal
channels and a reference case (straight) channel. The 9

Numerical techniques

In this study, the geometrical models (SD ¼ L/a ¼ 50; 25; 16.7;
12.5 and 8.3) of the sinusoidal flow channels were meshed
using the ICEM module of the commercial CFD software,
ANSYS FLUENT. We employed the VOF (volume of fluid)
method and coupled level set function due to the greater
advantage it offers, in terms of effectively tracking the two-
phase flow while accurately accounting for surface tension
effects [61]. Hence, using the VOF method and coupled level-
set function, the 3D numerical model is implemented using
ANSYS FLUENT [62]. In all cases, the transient governing
equations are solved using the pressure-based solver in
conjunction with the explicit scheme-based VOF method. Air
and water is considered as the primary and secondary phases
respectively. The PISO (Pressure-Implicit with Splitting of
Operators) scheme is used to obtain the PRESTO (pressure-
velocity coupling, while the pressure staggering option)
scheme is used to obtain the pressure discretization. The
second order upwind scheme and geometric reconstruction
are used to solve the momentum equation and the volume
fraction at the two-phase interface respectively using piece-
wise linear approach. The surface tension coefficient between
water and air assumes a constant as 0.0734 (N/m). A conver-
gence criterion for all cases is set at 10e5 for the solution of
continuity, momentum and level set function.

Grid independence test, time step method and model

validation

A grid independence analysis test is carried out to ensure that

the mesh resolution is sufficient to accurately solve the two-
phase flow problem. The computational cells are hexahedral
(Fig. (1)) and a grid independence test is carried out by a step-
wise approach of increasing the grid number by 20% in every
direction as used by Ref. [44]. A detail of the mesh analysis using Fig. 6 e Type A configuration time-averaged (a) GDL surface
the straight channel with base case dimension is specified in water coverage ratio (b) side water coverage ratio under
Table 2. The two-phase pressure drop is chosen as a means of hydrophobic conditions.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9
sinusoidal channels are grouped into three configurations:
Type A (wavier channel 10 waves with radius 1 mm at bends),
Type B (5 waves channel with radius 1 mm at bends) and Type
C (5 waves with radius 2 mm at bends). Table 1 shows different
cases investigated along with characteristic results obtained.
The base case air feed velocity of 12.5 m/s is based on the
actual operating condition of a 25 cm2 single fuel cell with
current density of 1 A cme2, temperature and operating
pressure of 80  C and 101325 Pa respectively. Fluid flow dy-
namics inside gas flow channel of PEMFCs hugely depends on
channel geometry, surface wettability; gas feed speed and
gravity. In addition, a combination of different forces such as
inertia, shear, surface tension and gravity, including pressure
effects also acts on the droplet flowing downstream. In two
phase analysis of fluid flow inside channels, the effect of
surface tension and inertial force is crucial and as such eval-
uated using dimensionless numbers such as Weber number
Fig. 7 e Type A configuration time-averaged (a) GDL surface water coverage ratio (b) side water coverage ratio (c) top wall
water coverage ratio under hydrophilic wetting (82/82) conditions.
13813
(We), Froude number (Fr) and Bond number (Bo). Hence,
for the baseline case, using the droplet diameter as the char-
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
acteristic lengthðLo Þ; We ¼ ru2 Lo =d ¼ 1:0; Fr ¼ u= gLo ¼
2
5
200; Bo ¼ rLo g=d ¼ 2:6  10 . The inertia force and surface
tension effect dominates the viscous and gravitational forces
in the present simulation conditions. The simulated cases are
also used to investigate the effect of static contact angle on the
GDL surface, wavy-side walls and top wall. The effect of the
sinusoidal distance (SD ¼ L/a (L¼5 and 2.5 mm); (a ¼ 0.1, 0.2
and 0.3 mm)) and radius of curvature is also discussed in
details.
Droplet removal rate in straight versus sinusoidal
rectangular channels
The straight rectangular channel (case 1) in this study is used
to check water removal rate in the different sinusoidal
13814 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9
channels. Under the same operating conditions, the sinusoi-
dal channels with higher sinusoidal distance (pitch-amplitude
ratio) for the three configurations (Type A, B and C) had a
slightly quicker removal rate compared to the reference case
as shown in Fig. 3. This is as a result of the strong secondary
flow effect induced on the droplet due to the curvy nature of
the side walls (Fig. 5), and this helps raise the gas velocity
inside the channel which is enough to push out the droplet
faster only if the flow is unhindered. This improvement can be
attributed to the formation of vortices in the channel cross
section and the rich flow physics [50]. Consequently the
vortices tend to increase with increasing amplitude enough to
cause chaotic movement of the advancing droplet. Hence,
decreasing the channel-sinusoidal distance (pitch-amplitude
ratio), causes droplet impingement with the side walls and
depending on the wall contact angle, it is either swept along
the side walls or flows to the top wall (Figs. 6e8). This droplet-
Fig. 8 e Type A configuration time-averaged (a) GDL surface water coverage ratio (b) side wall water coverage ratio (c) top
wall water coverage ratio under hydrophilic wetting (45/82) conditions.
wall interaction reduces droplet speed, hence the higher the
sinusoidal distance the faster the droplet removal rate.
Effect of channel sinusoidal distance
Channel waviness creates some form of secondary flows in-
side the channel domain and the two-phase flow in the
channel tends to have direction. Hence, depending on the si-
nusoidal distance, the flow direction can be different from the
main flow direction. Fig. 5 illustrates in details the velocity
streamlines superimposed with vorticity magnitude contours
along the y-z cross sections of the sinusoidal channel. It can be
seen that the net inward-directed flow, close to the top wall
and gas diffusion layer (GDL), sets up bouts of secondary flows
in the form of multiple rotational streamlines which are
superimposed on the main stream. The curvy nature of the
sinusoidal walls heightens the centrifugal force and pressure
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9 13815

Fig. 9 e Temporal evolution of droplet predilection to the side and top walls in a (Type A) sinusoidal channel (a) Case 4
ðqside;top ¼ 120o ; 120o Þ(b) Case 13 ðqside;top ¼ 82o ; 82o Þ(c) Case 22ðqside;top ¼ 45o ; 82o Þ.

gradient. As such, the droplet is driven by the aforementioned.
This positive characteristic will lead to reduced flow maldis-
tribution, improved heat transfer and cell performance.
Also, it can be seen from Fig. 5 that, the intensity of vortices
becomes stronger with increasing amplitude. On the contrary,
an increase in the pitch length for same amplitude becomes
weaker. The results above imply that an appropriate choice of
channel sinusoidal distance (pitch-amplitude ratio) affects
two-phase flows. Varying the pitch-amplitude ratio revealed
that they both had significant influence on the water removal
rate inside the sinusoidal channels. Channels with high SD
(pitch-amplitude ratio) performed better than channels with
smaller SD in terms of water removal rate with the former
yielding lower pressure drop (Fig. 4 (b)). In terms of the
observed velocity and pressure distribution along the flow
fields, as shown in Fig. 4 (a) and (b), sinusoidal channels with
smaller sinusoidal distances (SD 16.7 and 8.3) produced the
highest gas velocity values compared to the reference case
which had 30.09 m/s. These high velocity and pressure is due
to the curvy nature of the side walls, which raises the kinetic
energy of the gas particles as a result of collision with the
curved walls. The transient nature of the flow coupled with
the wavy shape of the walls, the result of a complex interac-
tion between the core fluid and boundary layer fluid through
shear layer destabilization and self-sustained oscillations [64].
This increased oscillation is responsible for the increase in
pressure drop noticed in sinusoidal channels. Consequently, a
slightly higher pressure drop in the sinusoidal channels is one
13816 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9

Fig. 10 e Time droplet advancement in the sinusoidal channels with side and top wall contact angle ðqside;top ¼ 82o ; 82o Þ (a)
case 11 (b) case 12 (c) case 13 (d) case 14 (e) case 15 (f) case 16 (g) case 17 (h) case 18 (i) case 19.

major demerit of the design [64,65], since it results in more slight pressure drop penalty is much smaller compared to the
power consumption. However, the two-phase pressure drop benefits the sinusoidal channels would offer.
after stabilization of the droplet in the sinusoidal channels is As shown in Table 1, this quick removal rate recorded in
almost equal to that of the straight channel Fig. 4 (b). This channels with higher SD (case 2, 5 and 8) was as a result of the
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9
unhindered droplet flow in the channel, which when
compared to the straight case performed better than the latter
(Fig. (3)). Whereas, the smaller the SD, the higher the chances
of droplet impingement with sidewalls and also the higher the
gas velocity in the channel (Fig. 4 (a)). Channels with higher
sinusoidal distance (case 2, 5 and 8), exhibited similar high
GDL surface water coverage ratio as with the straight channel.
Consequently, reducing the SD increases chances of height-
ened convective force or secondary flow intensity. Both of
which are capable of sweeping the droplet to the side and top
walls depending on the wall wettability (Fig. 6 (b), 7 (b)e(c) and
8 (b)e(c)). Therefore, it can be concluded that raising the si-
nusoidal distance can improve chances of faster droplet
removal rate if droplet flow is unhindered.
Effect of surface wall wettability on droplet exhaust
As earlier stated, the confining wall properties have a signifi-
cant effect on droplet removal and surface wetting behavior
(Fig. 9). In Type A configuration, the entire droplet in case 13
detached from the base (GDL surface) earlier compared to case
11 (Fig. 7 (a)) and as such had delayed stay inside the channel
due to the early ascension to the top wall (Fig. 7(b and c)). This
similar trend can also be observed in Fig. 8.
Fig. 9 depicts the temporal droplet predilection with the
confining walls in a typical sinusoidal channel. Fig. 9 (a)
shows the temporal droplet predilection with confining
walls under hydrophobic wall conditions of GDL ðq ¼
120+ Þand side-top wallsðq ¼ 120+ Þ, while in Fig. 9 (b) shows
GDLðq ¼ 120+ Þ, side wall ðq ¼ 82+ Þ and top wallðq ¼ 82+ Þ. In
both cases, after a few milliseconds (t ¼ 4.0 ms and 3.9 ms
respectively) the droplet is seen tending towards the side
walls. The droplet then hits the side wall and depending on
the wall wettability, the droplet either maintains its spher-
ical shape or is completely deformed upon wall interference.
Subsequently the droplet is swept along the side wall, while
for the hydrophobic side-top walls; the droplet did not rise to
the top wall (Fig. 9 (a)). Under slightly hydrophilic side walls
and top wall condition (Fig. 9 (b)), the droplet after hitting the
wall, rises to the top wall and is completely detached from
the base. Fig. 9 (c) also reveals the temporal droplet predi-
lection with the side and top wall under hybrid wetting
condition of GDLðq ¼ 120+ Þ, side wall ðq ¼ 45+ Þ and top
wallðq ¼ 82+ Þ. In this case, due to the highly hydrophilic side
wall, the droplet strikes the side wall and turns into a liquid
film wetting both side and top wall instantly before partially
detaching from the base leaving behind broken droplets
trapped in the wall corners (Fig. 8 (b)-(c)).
Fig. 8 also reveals that the time the droplet contacts the
side and top wall affects removal rate. The earlier the droplet
contacts the top wall (Fig. 10 (b) and (c)), the more time it takes
for it to leave the channel. Similarly, the longer the duration of
the droplet sweep along the side walls without contacting the
top wall, the quicker its exhaust from the channel (Fig. 10 (e)
and (f), (h) and (i)). In essence, it can be inferred that under
conditions wherein both sides and top walls are completely
hydrophobic, the droplet removal in the sinusoidal channels
would be quicker. While slightly, making the side and top
walls hydrophilic will ensure complete droplet detachment
from the hydrophobic base though with delayed removal rate.
13817
Curvature effect at the wall corners
Further simulation was performed to study the side wall
curvature effect with respect to channel performance under
similar boundary conditions for the less wavy channel
(Fig. 10 (d)e(i)). Results indicate that channels with higher
radius of curvature at bends produce lesser peak gas ve-
locity and pressure drop, compared to cases with smaller
radius at the side wall bends (see Fig. 4 (a) and (b)).
Furthermore, under hydrophobic wall conditions, the
smaller the radius of curvature at the bends the better the
performance in terms of droplet removal rate as shown also
in Table 1 (case 5 and 8).
However, under similar conditions comparing both case 7
and 10 (SD 16.7), case 10 with higher radius consistently per-
formed better compared to case 7 with smaller radius of cur-
vature. This phenomenon was noticed both under
hydrophobic and hydrophilic wall conditions. Hence the
smaller the radius of curvature, the better the water removal
capacity of the sinusoidal channels though the wall static
contact condition (Fig. 10 (d)e(i)) and time the droplet contacts
the side and top walls plays a key role. The pattern observed in
all sinusoidal cases revealed that the droplet flow rate greatly
depends on the wall properties and design as it predicts the
removal rate. Under variable hybrid wetting conditions, the
flow pattern became rather unusual as removal rate seemed
rather to depend on the time the droplet hits the side walls,
and the position of the swept droplet. Hence, under hydro-
phobic conditions (Table 1), it would be better to design the
channels using a smaller radius at the bends. While under
hybrid hydrophilic wetting conditions higher radius size at
bends would be most beneficial in channels with small to
medium sinusoidal distances (SDs).
Conclusions
The dynamics of liquid water characteristics in the sinusoidal
channel of a PEMFC are investigated using a 3D computational
fluid dynamics model together with the VOF method. The
effect of sinusoidal channel configuration (pitch-amplitude
ratio) and channel wall contact angle on water droplet
removal are comprehensively investigated, and compared
with straight channels. The differences in exhaust water
removal rates of the different configurations are reported in
the most precise manner. The main conclusions can be
summarized as follows.
1. Water removal rate increases with a corresponding in-
crease in sinusoidal distance (pitch-amplitude ratio).
Compared to the straight channel, this improvement is due
to the strength of the induced secondary flow caused as a
result of the curvy nature of the side walls. This charac-
teristic will lead to reduced flow maldistribution and
improved cell performance.
2. The pressure drop and gas velocity magnitude across the
sinusoidal channel increases with a corresponding in-
crease in sinusoidal distance, and are always slightly
higher than the conventional (straight) channels.
13818 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 3 8 0 7 e1 3 8 1 9
3. The contact angle of the walls greatly affects water droplet
transportation, chances of droplet breakage and its
adherence to corners. For design purposes, treating the
walls to be slightly hydrophilic would facilitate complete
droplet removal from the GDL surface, whereas raising the
hydrophobicity of the side walls and top wall, would lead to
faster droplet removal in the sinusoidal channel.
4. To facilitate the water removal process, a channel sinu-
soidal distance of SD 25 and SD 50 is recommended for
Type A, Type B and C configurations respectively.
Two-phase flow performance in the sinusoidal channels
can be improved by employing higher SD, smaller radius of
curvature at the bends and making the confining walls
extremely hydrophobic. With these strategies, the optimized
sinusoidal channel would generally perform better than the
conventional (straight) channel.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Key Research and
Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFB0105601)
and the Key Program of Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin
(China) (Grant No. 16JCZDJC30800).
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