Abstract
The porous components, e.g. gas diffusion layer (GDL) and catalyst layer (CL) of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), possess unique material properties and microstructural variations, which leads to challenges in numerically modeling the prevalent multiphase flow and transport. Due to the volume-averaged nature, the continuum-based computational models fail to capture the influence of the pore morphology and microstructural heterogeneity on the two-phase transport behavior. Pore-scale modeling, namely the pore network model and the lattice Boltzmann model, are discussed as promising avenues for modeling two-phase flow in the PEMFC porous components at the microstructure-level. The importance of macroscopic upscaling from pore-scale transport behavior is further elucidated to shed light on the microstructure-transport-performance interplay in PEMFCs.