Design and Modeling of Metallic Bipolar Plates for a Fuel Cell Range Extender

Uwe Reimer, Ekaterina Nikitsina, Holger Janßen, Martin Müller, Dieter Froning, Steven B. Beale and Werner Lehnert
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Uwe Reimer: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, IEK-14: Electrochemical Process Engineering, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Ekaterina Nikitsina: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, IEK-14: Electrochemical Process Engineering, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Holger Janßen: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, IEK-14: Electrochemical Process Engineering, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Martin Müller: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, IEK-14: Electrochemical Process Engineering, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Dieter Froning: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, IEK-14: Electrochemical Process Engineering, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Steven B. Beale: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, IEK-14: Electrochemical Process Engineering, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Werner Lehnert: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, IEK-14: Electrochemical Process Engineering, 52425 Jülich, Germany

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-26

Abstract: Fuel cells, designed for mobile applications, should feature compact and low-weight designs. This study describes a design process that fulfills the specific needs of target applications and the production process. The key challenge for this type of metallic bipolar plate is that the combination of two plates creates three flow fields, namely an anode side, a cathode side, and a coolant. This illustrates the fact that each cell constitutes an electrochemical converter with an integrated heat exchanger. The final arrangement is comprised of plates with parallel and separate serpentine channel configurations. The anode and cathode sides are optimized for operation under dry conditions. The final plate offers an almost perfect distribution of coolant flow over the active area. The high quality of this distribution is almost independent of the coolant mass flow, even if one of the six inlet channels is blocked. The software employed (OpenFOAM and SALOME) is freely available and can be used with templates.

Keywords: fuel cell; flow field; metallic plate; design; computational fluid dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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