Study On The Forming Process Of Metallic Bipolar Plate For PEM Fuel Cell

Nowadays, with the increasing environmental and resources problems prominently, the fuel cell brought hopes to the energy sustainable development and became the first choice of power generator in the 21st century. As a new, good performance and great development prospects, proton exchange membrane fuel cell was concerned and researched a lot. However, there are many factors hampering the spread of proton exchange membrane fuel cell, in which the cost of bipolar manufacturing becomes one of the major obstacles. In this paper, there are two different forming methods, which are researched in the finite element analysis software and compared that which is good to the forming process of bipolar plates of proton exchange membrane fuel cell, to produce bipolar plates in bulk and reduce the costs.First, the forming method of deep drawing process is studied well. The analysis of deformation, the stress and strain in the blanks and the mechanical analysis in the drawing process are researched carefully and the folds and precautions of the drawing parts are studied simply. In addition, the rounded corners of molds are made a further study to prepare for the finite element models later.Secondly, based on the LS-DYNA software, the rigid finite element model of a single channel of bipolar plate is established. To study the parameters of channels on the impact of the forming process of the whole bipolar plate, the opening slope, rounded above and rounded below of the channel are analyzed and compared to get the best channel geometry. At the same time, there are some discoveries. The increasing opening slope is good to the plate forming; the increasing rounded above can reduce the maximum stress and strain; the appropriate size of rounded below can make the filling capacity of plate better. The finite element model of rubber pad stamping in the best channel geometry are stamped successfully in LS-DYNA software and compared with the traditional method of rigid dies stamping.The forming methods, forming process, punching loads and using economically of the two forming process of bipolar plates are compared shows that rubber pad stamping can save design time and model manufacturing costs and be suitable for small depth channel of bipolar plates and be produced suitably in small and medium factories to save costs.