The structural variation of the gas diffusion layer and a performanceevaluation of polymer electrolyte fuel cellsas a function of clamping pressure

• Published in: Journal of mechanical science and technology pp. 565 - 574
• Main Authors: Sang Yeop Lee, 이관수, 엄석기
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 대한기계학회 01.03.2008
• Subjects: 기계공학
• ISSN: 1738-494X; 1976-3824

Interfacial contact resistance between gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and bipolar plates (BPs) has a substantial effect on the performance loss of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). Particularly during the final manufacturing process of a fuel cell stack, an externally applied clamping load determines the extent of electrical contact between those two solid components. In order to have the least electrical contact loss, it is highly necessary to keep all PEFC components close each other without causing structural failure of fuel cell stacks. In the present work, we investigated the effect of the clamping pressure on extrinsic properties such as porosity and permeability, which is closely related to mass transfer of reactants. Also, the variance of interfacial electrical resistance was analyzed as a function of the stack clamping pressure or the compressed GDL thickness, which reflects the external clamping load. Then with these experimentally obtained material properties of GDL, computational efforts were made to account for the effect of the clamping pressure on the fuel cell performance. KCI Citation Count: 2