Impact of anisotropy level of gas diffusion layer on the temperature distribution of a PEM fuel cell cathode electrode

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells being employed in fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) are promising power generators producing electric power from fuel stream via porous electrodes. Structure of carbon paper gas diffusion layers (GDLs) applying in the porous electrodes can have a great influence on the PEM fuel cell performance and distribution of temperature, especially at the cathode side where the electrochemical reaction is more sluggish. To discover the role of carbon paper GDL structure, different cathode electrodes with dissimilar anisotropy parameter are simulated via lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The distributions of temperature through the GDL as well as the distribution of temperature on the catalyst layer are presented and analyzed. The results indicate that when the carbon fibres are more likely oriented normal to the catalyst layer the distribution of temperature becomes more uniform. Besides, the maximum temperature occurs in this case.