Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Degree

MSE in Mechanical Engineering

Date Completed

2021

First Committee Member

Mortazavi, Mehdi

Second Committee Member

N/A

Third Committee Member

N/A

Abstract

"A programmatic approach to analysis of high speed video was developed allowing for the characterization of a droplet on a gas diffusion layer (GDL) substrate under a shear gas flow in an ex-situ approximation of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. This approach was successful in characterization of the droplet size and location, but did not successfully capture contact angle hysteresis in the droplet. Experimentally, droplets were formed on the GDL at a constant rate under varying air flow rates and the resulting motion was observed at 2000 frames per second using a high speed camera. The resulting motion of the droplet centroid was investigated via a fast discrete Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm. The FFT results indicate that there were two behavior domains seen within this test sequence. At low air flow rates (1.63 m/s or less) a low frequency oscillation was observed in both the horizontal and vertical directions. At higher air flow rates (above 1.63 m/s) a less defined vibration signature was observed. The low frequency oscillation seen in the low flow rate trials agrees trend-wise with some hybrid numerical-analytical models proposed by Polverino [1], and Dimitrikopaulos [2]. Trends dissimilar to those seen in work by Esposito [3] were noted but are likely attributable to differences in experimental conditions and the test apparatus."

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