Measurement of Through-plane Gas Permeability of Gas Diffusion Layers in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Under Compressive Strain

The gas diffusion layer (GDL) is in charge of the diffusion of gases and the discharge of water in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The change in the through-plane gas permeability of a GDL was experimentally measured in a compressively deformed state. The channel part was designed similarly as the actual PEMFC, and thus the compression and gas flow take place at the same time because the compression is co-directional to the gas flow in measuring the through-plane gas permeability. Three channel widths were applied, and the permeability was measured while varying the compressive load. TGPH-120, which is frequently used in PEMFCs, was used, and the permeability was obtained according to the PTFE loading, which was added to improve the water repellency of the GDL. In this paper, through-plane permeability under actual compressive conditions is proposed, and the results can contribute to an improvement in the modeling accuracy of the transport phenomena in the GDL.