Effects of anisotropic bending stiffness of gas diffusion layers on the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with bipolar plates employing different channel depths

Kyung Don Baik, Bo Ki Hong, Kookil Han and Min Soo Kim

Renewable Energy, 2014, vol. 69, issue C, 356-364

Abstract: The effects of the anisotropic bending stiffness of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) on the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with metallic bipolar plates (MBPs), having different channel depths, are investigated. The current–voltage performance of fuel cells with 90° GDLs, whose directions of higher stiffness are perpendicular to the direction of the major flow field, is generally higher than that of cells with 0° GDLs, whose directions of higher stiffness are parallel to the direction of the major flow field. In the shallowest channel, the air pressure drop (ΔP) values of the 90° GDL cells are clearly lower than those of the 0° GDL cells, indicating less intrusion of the 90° GDL into the MBP channels. However, no significant difference appears between the air ΔP values of 0° and 90° GDL cells employing deeper channels. In comparison with other cells employing deeper channels, a dramatic increase in the high-frequency resistance of both the 0° and 90° GDL cells with the shallowest channel is unexpectedly observed, presumably due to the exceptional increase in the hydrogen and air pressure, which may cause more deformation and poor contact status of the GDLs in the cell. The cross-sectional images of GDLs upon compression indicate that the difference of blocked channel area between 0° and 90° GDL cells is much larger in the case of the shallowest channel, resulting in the observed air ΔP, whereas it is substantially negligible for the deepest channel.

Keywords: Gas diffusion layer; Intrusion; Anisotropy; Channel depth; Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148114002353
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:69:y:2014:i:c:p:356-364

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.03.060

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().