Analysis and Optimum Design of a PEM Fuel Cell Structure
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Jheng, Yi-Ting
Abstract
This paper studies the structural analysis and optimum design of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack. The aim of this study is to recognize the structural behaviors of PEM fuel cell under operation stage at steady state by using finite element analysis (FEA). First, the PEM fuel cell models are constructed with whole components. The models for FEA are generated by a CAD software with a parametric program, and then are imported into FEA software to generate meshed model. Next, with given thermal and structural loadings, a series of finite element analyses are executed to analyze the thermal and structural behaviors of PEM fuel cell. A meshed model of a single cell is generated and analyzed at the beginning. The boundary conditions are applied into the meshed model, such as heat generation of chemical reaction, force convection of cooling water, and assembly pressure on the end plate, to obtain the behaviors of single cell. Besides, the analyses of multiple-cell short stack are executed as well. Finally, temperature measurement method of infrared (IR) thermography is applied to record the temperature distribution of exterior surfaces in a PEM fuel cell and verify the simulation results. It shows that the analysis results are generally close to the experiment results. The thermal effect is identified as the main factor for the high stresses and will cause the failure of the fuel cell components, especially for carbon plates. Also, an optimum design procedure is performed to obtain a better carbon plate structure design satisfying the structural safety requirement.
Subjects
PEM fuel cell
Finite element analysis
Thermal analysis
Structural optimization
Infrared thermography
Type
thesis
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