Technical Research Of Design And Processing For The PEMFC Thin Metal Bipolar Plate

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) is recognized as the main candidate to replace the internal-combustion engine in transportation applications because of its excellent advantages such as:high energy conversion efficiency, environment friendly, long life, working at the room temperature and etc. It is widely applied in portable power, small fixed power stations and power supply of electric vehicles and other transports, and it has an enormous market potential. PEMFC can convert chemical energy directly into electrical energy and the thermoelectric conversion efficiency can be theoretically up to85%to90%, in fact, the actual energy conversion efficiency in the range of40%to60%due to various limitations of the polarization, and it has further room for improvements. High cost is the main reason for hindering the commercialization of PEMFC, and bipolar plate takes over a majority cost of the fuel cell about30%to45%. Selecting the appropriate materials and processing technology are the main way to reduce the cost.This thesis is mostly aim to design and optimize the thin metal bipolar plate and stamping process:1. According to the functions and characteristics of the bipolar plate, ideas and principles of design optimization were put forward and set different optimizations to achieve the corresponding optimization purposes.2. The performance of PEMFC is largely affected by the distribution uniformity of reactants. The inlet geometry, the cross-section shape, and the basic structure size of the flow channel are simulated and optimized by computational fluid dynamics method.3. Numerical simulation of the stamping process is carried out by calculation method based on elastic-plastic deformation finite element method. Analyzing the blank holder force and other factors on the effect of stamping and the simulated result shows the feasibility of stamping used to manufacture thin metal bipolar plates.4. Based on the numerical analysis, the design of structure for the thin metal bipolar plate and the system design and assembly have also been done.The results in this thesis provide reliable design foundation for the deformation of miniature bipolar plates. Some of the results will be have a definite guidance meaning for design and manufacture of bipolar plates with various models.