Investigation of a Modified Stamping Process for Fabrication of PEMFC Metallic Bipolar Plates with Cascaded Flow Field

Among different components of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack, bipolar plates are veryimportant due to their volume and weight (about 60 to 80 percent of PEM fuel cell stack) as well as cost (about 30 to 45percent of PEM fuel cell stack). In this paper, forming of complete metallic bipolar plates with cascaded serpentine flowfield and active area of 100 cm2 is investigated. For fabrication of these plates, a modified stamping process isemployed. The effect of forming forces on channel width and rib width are studied. Results reveal that an increase inthe stamping force overcomes the strain hardening, which increases the width of the channels and ribs.

کلیدواژه ها:

Stamping process ، Metallic bipolar plate ، Forming force ، PEM fuel cell ، Cascaded serpentine flow field