The performance of PEM fuel cells (PEMFC) relies on the proper control and management of the liquid water that forms as a result of the electrochemical process, especially at high current densities. The liquid water transport and removal process in the gas flow channel is highly dynamic and many of its fundamental features are not well understood. This thesis presents an experimental and theoretical investigation of the emergence of water droplets from a single pore into a microchannel. The experiments are performed in a 250 µm × 250 µm air channel geometry with a single 50 µm pore that replicates a PEMFC cathode gas channel. A droplet manipulation platform is constructed using a microfluidics soft lithographic process to allow observation of the dynamic nature of the water droplets. Flow conditions that correspond to typical operating conditions in a PEMFC are selected. A test matrix of experiments comprised of different water injection velocities and air velocities in the gas microchannel is studied. Emergence, detachment and subsequent dynamic evolution of water droplets are analyzed, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Quantitative image analysis tools are implemented and applied to the time-resolved images to document the time evolution of the shape and location of the droplets, characteristic frequencies, dynamic contact angles, flow regime and stability maps. Three different flow regimes are identified, slug, droplet, and film flow. The effects of the air flow rate and droplet size on the critical detachment conditions are also investigated. Numerical simulations using Volume-of-Fluid method are presented to investigate the water dynamics in the droplet flow. The focus of the modeling is on methods that account for the dynamic nature of the contact line evolution. Results of different approaches of dynamic contact angle formulations derived empirically and by using the theoretically based Hoffmann function are compared with the static contact angle models used to date. The importance of the dynamic formulation as well as the necessity for high numerical resolution is highlighted. The Hoffmann function implementation is found to better capture the salient droplet motion dynamics in terms of advancing and receding contact angle and periodicity of the emergence process. To explore the possibility of using the pressure drop signal as a diagnostic tool in operational fuel cells that are not optically accessible, a flow diagnostic tool was developed based on pressure drop measurements in a custom designed two-phase flow fixture with commercial flow channel designs. Water accumulation at the channel outlet was found to be the primary cause of a low-frequency periodic oscillation of pressure drop signal. It is shown that the flow regimes can be characterized using the power spectrum density of the normalized pressure drop signal. This is used to construct a flow map correlating pressure drop signals to the flow regimes, and opens the possibility for practical flow diagnostics in operating fuel cells. / Graduate

De nombreux procédés actuels mettent en jeu des écoulements diphasiques (sprays agricoles, pharmaceutiques, peinture...). Néanmoins, la connaissance des mécanismes régissant les interactions entre les phases (entraînement, modification des trajectoires des particules, transfert d'énergie...) est encore incomplète, notamment lors de l'injection directe essence, qui représente le cadre de cette étude. Dans cette étude expérimentale, les dynamiques instantanées des deux phases sont étudiées dans un plan pour mettre en évidence les interactions aérodynamiques entre les phases. Pour ce faire, un diagnostic de FPIV diphasique, utilisant un colorant fluorescent pour chaque phase, est développé afin d'acquérir simultanément des images séparées de chaque phase sur deux caméras indépendantes. Ainsi, les vitesses instantanées et simultanées des deux phases sont mesurées sans recourir à un prétraitement des images. Dans un premier temps, ce diagnostic optique est appliqué à la caractérisation d'une injection dans un gaz au repos. L'injection du spray met en mouvement le gaz par le biais d'un transfert de quantité de mouvement du spray vers le gaz. La dispersion des gouttes du spray et le mélange des deux phases qui résultent de ces transferts d'énergie cinétique dépendent du type de spray et également de la pression d'injection. Dans un second temps, ces interactions sont étudiées dans un moteur monocylindre transparent. La comparaison entre les fonctionnements avec et sans injection indique un impact notable de la présence du spray sur l'aérodynamique interne par le développement de nouvelles structures et la modification des caractéristiques du tumble. L'aérodynamique interne du moteur modifie également le développement du spray en comparaison de l'injection dans un gaz au repos. / Two-phase flows are involved in numerous actual industrial processes (agriculture, pharmacy, painting...). However, the complex interactions between phases (entrainment, particle trajectory modification, energy transfer...) are not well understood, especially for the gasoline direct injection, which represents the context of this study. For this experimental study, instantaneous dynamics of both phases are studied in a plan to highlight the aerodynamic interactions between phases. To achieve that, a two-phase FPIV diagnostic, based on using a fluorescent dye for each phase, is developed to simultaneously acquire separated images of each phase on two independent cameras. Instantaneous and simultaneous velocities of both phases are measured without any image pre-processing. Firstly, this optical diagnostic is applied to the characterisation of a spray injection in a gas at rest. The spray drags the gas by a momentum transfer from spray to gas. The spray droplet dispersion and the mixture between the two phases, which result from this kinetic energy transfer, depend on the spray topology and the injection pressure. Then, these interactions are studied in a transparent monocylinder engine. The comparison between cycles with and without injection reveals a significant impact of the spray presence on the internal aerodynamic through the development of new structures and the modification of tumble characteristics. The internal aerodynamic also modifies the spray development in comparison to the injection in a gas at rest.