The design and method of cell assembly play important roles in assessing the performance of PEM fuel cell. The cell assembly will affect the contact behavior between the bipolar plates, flow-channel plates, gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and membrane electrode assembly (MEA). From the past studies, it is noted that the flow-channel plates in the cell will be deformed while the cell was assembled by locking with bolts. This phenomenon may lead to leakage of fuels, high contact resistance and malfunctioning of the cells. The main aim of this research is to study the variation of the deformation mode of the flow-channel plat in a micro-PEM fuel cell assembly subjected to different bolts locking sequences. The commercial FEM package, ANSYS, was adopted to model the three-dimensional single micro-PEMFC FEM model and the numerical simulation analyses were performed. The effect of the bolts locking sequence on the deformations of flow-channel plate in the micro-PEMFC was presented.

Volume Subject Area:
Cell, Stack and System Experiments
Topics:
Flow (Dynamics), Proton exchange membrane fuel cells, Manufacturing, Plates (structures), Deformation, Finite element methods, Finite element model, Gas diffusion layers, Computer simulation, Contact resistance, Design, Fuel cells, Fuels, Leakage, Membrane electrode assemblies, Proton exchange membranes
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Copyright © 2008
 by ASME
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