2224
Simulation of a Multi-Hole Cathode Bipolar Plate Design for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

Wednesday, 1 June 2016
Exhibit Hall H (San Diego Convention Center)
K. D. Baik, H. Ji, K. Kim, J. Kim, and S. B. Cho (Agency for Defense Development)
The utilization of fuel cells for powering various applications such as automotive and military equipment requires a reduction in size as well as an increase in power, as current fuel cell systems are not profitable and still too large. Solving these issues for fuel cells requires a novel fuel cells structure that enables high power density operation. In this study, the two-dimensinal steady state model considering the bipolar plate with multi-hole was developed to investigate how the multi-hole design affects the cell performance. We found out that the hole formation on the land area for the cathode bipolar plate has significantly influenced on the cell performance. Results show that the average current density for the multi-hole bipolar plate is increased up to 28.64% because of the uniform distribution of oxygen mole fraction.