Manufacturing And Performance Testing Of Steel Bipolar Plates With Micro Channels

In this paper, it mainly studied the manufacturing and performance testing of steelbipolar plates with micro channels made by multi-tooth cutter. Also, it studied the effects ofchannel width on Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Performance. The main works aresummarized as follows:(1) Manufacturing mechanism research of steel Bipolar plates with micro channels madeby multi-tooth cutter.In this paper, the stainless steel bipolar plates with micro simple straight channels aremanufactured by multi-tooth cutter. The effects of the parameters of multi-tooth tools andcutting parameters on channel’s morphology and cutting force are studied. The result showsthat: a small bump appears on the top of the bank of bipolar plates made by multi-tooth cutter.And the bottom outline of channels show a shape of wave, which caused by the tool blendsperiodicity. The details of morphology of channels are affected by parameters of multi-toothtools and cutting parameters. what is more, the parameters of multi-tooth tools and cuttingparameters also have something to do with the cutting force.(2) Effects of channel’s width on PEMFC performance.This paper compared the performance of PENFC with stainless steel bipolar plates withdifferent width. The result shows that: the current density and power density of PEMFC areimproved by used of bipolar plates with smaller width channels.Asmaller width of channelswill contribute to reduce the concentration difference of gases and balance the distribution ofwater and temperature in MEA.(3) Effects of channel width on PEMFC dynamic performance.Based on the research above, the dynamic performance of PENFC with bipolar plates,which channels have different width, is discussed in this paper. The result shows that: PEMFCcan be quickly started and it has a good sensitivity to load changing. A smaller width channelcan reduce the time to a stable condition needed by PEMFC. Besides, the results all of aboveprove that the stainless steel bipolar plates with micro channels made by multi-tooth cuutercan be applied well in PEMFC.