Date of Award
2010
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)
College, School or Department Name
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Advisor
Jeffrey Allen
Abstract
Fuel Cells are a promising alternative energy technology. One of the biggest problems that exists in fuel cell is that of water management. A better understanding of wettability characteristics in the fuel cells is needed to alleviate the problem of water management. Contact angle data on gas diffusion layers (GDL) of the fuel cells can be used to characterize the wettability of GDL in fuel cells. A contact angle measurement program has been developed to measure the contact angle of sessile drops from drop images. Digitization of drop images induces pixel errors in the contact angle measurement process. The resulting uncertainty in contact angle measurement has been analyzed. An experimental apparatus has been developed for contact angle measurements at different temperature, with the feature to measure advancing and receding contact angles on gas diffusion layers of fuel cells.
Recommended Citation
Konduru, Vinaykumar, "Static and dynamic contact angle measurement on rough surfaces using sessile drop profile analysis with application to water management in low temperature fuel cells", Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2010.