Assembly design of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack with stamped metallic bipolar plates

Fuel cell assembly plays a dominant role in performance and lifetime of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. Most current methods for assembly design are based on experiment and finite element (FE) model, which need high cost and huge computation for the whole fuel cell. Unfortunately, there are only few theoretical,methods which contribute to the whole stack assembly, especially those in 3D model. This study develops a comprehensive methodology to simulate the stack assembly and to design the clamping displacement/pressure. At first, contact pressure field on the GDL is predicted with the use of the continuous equivalent model. The total contact resistance and porosity of fuel cell are proposed as the evaluation indexes combined by the desirability of function method. Then, in order to validate the contact pressure prediction, experiments with dimensional-error metallic bipolar plate are carried out and the numerical results show good agreements with experimental results, At last, clamping pressure of the endplate is calculated to optimize the assembly process. The methodology in this study is beneficial to the understanding of the internal contact behavior of the whole stack and helpful to guide the assembling of PEM fuel cell. Copyright (C) 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.