The impacts of image resolution on permeability simulation of gas diffusion layer using lattice Boltzmann method JinuntuyaFontip ChenRui OstadiHossein JiangKyle GaoYuan ZhangXiaoxian 2014 The effect of image resolution on gas permeability through the x-ray reconstructed carbon paper gas diffusion layer (GDL) of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) is examined in this paper. The 3D models of the GDL at six different resolutions are obtained by the x-ray tomography imaging technique. Each GDL image is then characterized its gas permeability through the lattice Boltzmann (LB) numerical method. The results suggest that the image resolution has a great impact on gas permeability in both principal and off-principal flow directions. The coarser resolutions can contribute to significant changes in the resulting permeability. However, it can reduce computational time to a great extent. The results also indicate that the GDL image at the resolution of 2.72 μm provides a good compromise between computational time and accuracy.