Experimental Characterization of Anisotropic Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Gas Diffusion Layers
Authors: Ringström Marcus , Wreland Lindström Rakel , Lindbergh Göran , Ekström Henrik 
Published: July 2022

Gas diffusion layer (GDL) is a vital component in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) due its main functions to conduct electrons and heat between the adjacent fuel cell components, provide preferential pathways for product water removal and to provide uniform reactant gas flow distribution to the electrode surface. Because of the anisotropic GDL microstructure, the transport properties vary in the through-plane and in-plane direction. Furthermore, during fuel cell stack assembly pressures exerted on the flowfield land compress the GDL under land cause changes of the GDL microstructure. While moderate compression increases GDL thermal conductivity due to increased fiber-fiber contacts, excessive compression may impede diffusive and liquid water transport due to loss of GDL pore volume. Detailed knowledge of how thermal conductivity is affected by the anisotropic nature of gas diffusion layers under compression is imperative in order to provide a better understanding on how thermal gradients influence two-phase transport during PEMFC operation. Previous research efforts have focused on steady-state methods for measuring effective through-plane GDL thermal conductivity [1][2][3][4] and effective in-plane GDL thermal conductivity [5][6] but to the best of our knowledge no studies have been conducted to measure effective in-plane GDL thermal conductivity for a variety of different GDL types under compression.

This study attempts to fill that gap by using specially designed in-house tools to characterize the influence of GDL anisotropy on effective thermal conductivity as a function compression for different GDL types. Furthermore, a comprehensive ex-situ mechanical study is conducted to characterize the compliance matrix for different GDL types. Early results indicate a highly non-linear compressive behaviour in the GDL through-plane direction with large variations for the different GDL types. Moreover, the flexural modulus is found to be highly anisotropic where stiffness in the GDL machine direction (MD) is consistently larger compared to stiffness in GDL cross machine direction (CMD). This work will provide a foundation for a numerical study to couple an anisotropic GDL structural model with a non-isothermal two-phase model to investigate the effects of inhomogenous compression on two-phase transport.

Keywords: GDL, PEMFC, ex-situ, anisotropy, modulus, microstructure, mechanical, compression, characterization, MD, CMD, through-plane, in-plane, thermal conductivity

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