Deformation Prediction of the Bipolar Plate Stamping

Abstract

Bipolar plate is the key component of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell and represents a significant part of the overall cost and the total weight in a fuel cell stack. Many research have been done on the manufacturing methods of bipolar plate, among which stamping is very popular. With the increasing of the channel number and complexity, its dimensional error caused by sprinkback will change a lot, even under the same forming process. And the risk of crack is also different. These all impact the quality of bipolar plate. In order to predict deformation of channels and the plate’s quality, the displacement along X-axis, the strain and stress state, and the displacement along Z-axis are measured. The results show that 1) the risk of crack increases with the increasing of channel number; 2) the springbacks increase with the increasing of channel number; 3) the most dangerous point locates on the right internal fillet of the plate’s last section.