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X-ray tomography and modelling study on the mechanical behaviour and performance of metal foam flow-fields for polymer electrolyte fuel cells

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journal contribution
posted on 2019-03-07, 09:26 authored by Ashley FlyAshley Fly, Q. Meyer, Michael Whiteley, F. Iacoviello, T. Neville, Paul Shearing, Daniel J.L. Brett, Chang Soo Kim, Rui Chen
Porous metal foams have been used as alternative flow-fields in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), exhibiting improved performance compared to conventional ‘land and channel’ designs. In the current work, the mechanical behaviour of PEMFCs using metal foam flow-fields is investigated across different length scales using a combination of electrochemical testing, X-ray computed tomography (CT), compression tests, and finite element analysis (FEA) numerical modelling. Fuel cell peak power was seen to improve by 42% when foam compression was increased from 20% to 70% due to a reduction in the interfacial contact resistance between the foam and GDL. X-ray CT scans at varying compression levels reveal high levels of interaction between the metal foam and gas diffusion layer (GDL), with foam ligaments penetrating over 50% of the GDL thickness under 25% cell compression. The interfacial contact area between the foam and GDL were seen to be 10 times higher than between the foam and a stainless-steel plate. Modelling results demonstrate highly uniform contact pressure distribution across the cell due to plastic deformation of the foam. The effect of stack over-tightening and operating conditions are investigated, demonstrating only small changes in load distribution when paired with a suitable sealing gasket material.

Funding

This work has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under grant number EP/M023508/1 ‘Innovative concepts from electrode to stack’ UK/South Korea project.

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering

Published in

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Volume

44

Issue

14

Pages

7583 - 7595

Citation

FLY, A. ... et al., 2019. X-ray tomography and modelling study on the mechanical behaviour and performance of metal foam flow-fields for polymer electrolyte fuel cells. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 44(14), pp. 7583-7595.

Publisher

© The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC.

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/

Acceptance date

2019-01-23

Publication date

2019-02-19

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

ISSN

0360-3199

Language

  • en

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