Investigation of formability of metallic bipolar plates via stamping for light-weight PEM fuel cells


Karacan K., Celik S., Toros S., Alkan M., Aydin U.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY, cilt.45, sa.60, ss.35149-35161, 2020 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 45 Sayı: 60
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.01.251
  • Dergi Adı: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, Artic & Antarctic Regions, Chimica, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, Environment Index, INSPEC
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.35149-35161
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: PEM fuel cell, Metallic bipolar plates, Light-weight plate, Formability, FLOW-FIELDS, PERFORMANCE, WATER, CHANNELS
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Bipolar plates (BPs) are one of the main members which constitute a significant percentage of a fuel cell system in terms of cost, weight and structural strength. Although frequently used graphite BPs have low density, high conductivity and corrosion resistance, machining the desired flow channels on the graphite plates is an important issue. On the other hand, metallic BPs can be considered a reasonable alternative material to graphite in the view of the material cost, fabrication of flow channels and some post-processes in which the largescale manufacturing of graphite BPs is more complex compared to cutting and stamping processes for metal ones. This study offers a comparison of the formability of four different metals with four flow channel depths as bipolar plates formed by stamping. 304 Stainless Steel (SS 304), pure Titanium Grade2 (CP-Ti) and Aliminium (Al 6016 and Al 3104) are chosen as the BP materials. A serpentine type flow channel with two different channel widths are formed on to 0.1 mm thick sheets. The channel width is chosen as 1.2 mm and 1.8 mm for the channel depths of 0.36 mm-0.55 mm, and 0.54 mm-0.82 mm, respectively. The stamping processes of the BPs materials are simulated via commercially available eta/ Dynaform v5.9.4. software and formability characteristics are obtained for sixteen various cases. As a result, it is determined that SS 304 is the more appropriate material in the view of the formability for such a complex form. (c) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.