Papers by Keyword: Assembly Pressure

Abstract: Assembly pressure plays an important role in the factors affecting the performance of a PEM fuel cell. An insufficient clamping pressure may cause large contact resistance and thus lower the cell performance. On the other hand, over-clamping may reduce the porosity and permeability of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) and also result in poor cell performance. Therefore, it is very important to determine the proper assembly pressure for obtaining optimal performance. In this study, we design a special test fixture to evaluate the effect of assembly pressure on the performance of a PEM fuel cell. Without disassembling the fuel cell, the clamping pressure can be adjusted in situ to measure the cell performance directly and precisely. The unique single cell design eliminates the influence of gasket around the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and makes it possible to estimate the compression effect of GDL independently. Three different types of carbon paper are used in the experiments as the GDLs. The variations of water contact angle, gas permeability, and in-plane electrical resistivity with the assembly pressure are also measured to explore the effects of assembly pressure on these physical properties. The results show that an optimal assembly pressure is always observed in each case, indicating an adequate compression on GDL is quite necessary for fuel cells.

Abstract: The assembly of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is the important factor for the performance. The achievement of proper design will improve the pressure distribution and the electrical contact resistance between fuel cell parts. The assembly pressure affects the contact behavior between of bipolar plate and gas diffusion layer (GDL). In this study, finite element analysis (FEA) was used to analyze the behavior of single cell fuel cell under the variation of assembly pressure. It shows 3D of deformation, and the compression pressure every part of the fuel cell components. The simulation varied the torque assembly from 1 Nm to 3 Nm with increment 0.5 Nm. The simulation using FEA shows that high assembly pressure also affects to the high deformation and stress in the components of fuel cell. This phenomenon affects to the performance of PEM fuel cell.

Abstract: The compression induced by the assembly of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells causes partial deformation of the gas-diffusion layers (GDLs) and, consequently, influences the performance of PEM fuel cells. In order to investigate how assembly pressure affects electric efficiency of PEMFC, performance of PEMFC experiments with a miniature self-humidifying, breathing PEMFC stack are conducted under different clamping pressures. The polarization and power efficiency curves of PEMFC under different clamping pressures show that the best performance can be obtained at the allowable lower limit of working parameters. The research shows that the effect of assembly clamping pressure is significant, and the low clamping pressure is beneficial to improve the performance of the PEMFC stack while keeping sealing. The experimental results indicate that a clamping pressure of 1MPa improves the fuel cell performance in this paper.