Affiliation:
1. Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Technologies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3139
2. Mem. ASME
Abstract
The electrical contact resistance between gas diffusion layers and bipolar flow channel plates is one of the important factors contributing to the operational voltage loss in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Effective analysis and design of fuel cells therefore need to account for the contact resistance in deriving the polarization curve for the cell. Despite its significance, relatively scant work is reported in the open literature on the measurement and modeling of the contact resistance in fuel cell systems, and the present work aims to fill this void. Experimental data are reported for the first time to show the effects of different gas diffusion layer materials and contact pressure on the electrical contact resistance. A fractal asperity based model is adopted to predict the contact resistance as a function of pressure, material properties, and surface geometry. Good agreement is observed between the data and the model predictions for a wide range of contacting pressures and materials.
Subject
Mechanical Engineering,Mechanics of Materials,Energy Engineering and Power Technology,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Reference11 articles.
1. Properties of Molded Graphite Bi-Polar Plates for PEM Fuel Cell Stacks;Barbir;J. New Mater. Electrochem. Syst.
2. Stainless Steel as Bi-polar Plate Material for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells;Wang;J. Power Sources
3. A Novel Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell for Laboratory Investigations and In-Situ Contact Resistance Measurements;Ihonen;Electrochim. Acta
4. Contact of Nominally Flat Surfaces;Greenwood;Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A
5. Thermal Contact Conductance;Cooper;Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
Cited by
182 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献，注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献，订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献