PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A BIPOLAR PLATE IN A FUEL CELL USING COMPUTER FLUID DYNAMICS STUDIES

Abstract

Over the past ten years, proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells have gained popularity as a potential energy source. PEM fuel cells are a high efficiency, environmentally friendly power source that are not constrained by Carnot efficiency. Due to its characteristics of zero emissions, high power density, rapid start-up, and low operating temperature, they are seen as one of the attractive options to be utilized for electric cars. In this project work, a fuel cell uses that a low cost bipolar plate material with a high fuel cell performance are important for the establishment of PEM fuel cells into the competitive market world are taken in consideration. The analysis is carried out for the selected materials like Aluminium, Copper and Stainless steel on considering the design and operational parametric conditions of the PEM fuel cell. The aluminium bipolar plate exhibits improved uniformity in the dispersion of hydrogen, oxygen, and water vapour, which will improve the ionic conductivity in the membrane. After analysing the data, we found that the aluminium bipolar plate material had the best temperature distribution in the fuel cell and the lowest pressure loss when compared to the copper and stainless steel materials. Therefore, due to its light weight and reasonably low price of material, aluminium serpentine bipolar plate material may be thought of as the ideal bipolar plate material, especially for portable applications.