Two-phase flow analysis of the hydrogen recirculation system for automotive pem fuel cell

The purpose of this paper is to analyze two-phase flows of the hydrogen recirculation system. Two-phase flow modeling is one of the great challenges in the classical sciences. As with most problems in engineering, the interest in two-phase flow is due to its extreme importance in various industrial applications. In hydrogen recirculation systems of fuel cell, the changes in pressure and temperature affect the phase change of mixture. Therefore, two-phase flow analysis of the hydrogen recirculation system is very important. Two-phase computation fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations, using a commercial CFD package FLUENT 6.2, were employed to calculate the gas-liquid flow. A two-phase flow calculation was conducted to solve continuity, momentum, energy equation for each phase. Then, the mass transfer between water vapor and liquid water was calculated. Through an experiment to measure production of liquid water with change of pressure, the analysis model was verified. The predictions of rate of condensed liquid water with change of pressure were within an average error of about 5%. A comparison of experimental and computed data was found to be in good agreement. The variations of performance, properties, mass fraction and two-phase flow characteristic of mixture with resepct to the fuel cell power were investigated.