| New vehicle technologies are required to improve upon conventional internal combustion engine technologies. In this regard, the development of fuel cell (polymer electrolyte membrane type) vehicles with improved efficiency and reliability seems promising. However, some technical issues exist that hinder the commercialization of this technology. One such issue is the high cost, volume, and mass of the bipolar/end plates in the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack. This research, therefore, focuses on materials, design, and modeling for bipolar/end plates in PEMFC stack.; Alternative materials were tested that can replace the conventionally used graphite in the PEMFC stack. With regards to these, a two-cell PEMFC stack was fabricated with SS-316 multi-parallel flow-field (MPFF) designed bipolar/end plates. The stack was run for over 1000 hours and showed no appreciable drop in performance.; To enhance the understanding and for determining the effect of operating parameters in PEMFC, a single cell model was developed. The model results agree well with the experimental data. The gas flow-field in bipolar/end plates of the PEMFC was optimized with respect to channel dimensions, channel shape, flow-field design, and flow-field permeability. It was seen that lower the flow-field permeability better is the fuel cell performance. Based on this, the concept of use of metal foams in the gas flow-field was proposed.; Experiments were carried out to test the feasibility of metal foams in the gas flow-field of bipolar/end plates in PEMFC stack. Three different porous materials, viz. Ni-Cr metal foam (50 P PI, pores per inch), S S-316 metal foam (20 PPI), and carbon cloth were tested, and the results were compared to the conventional MPFF channel design concept. It was seen that the performance with Ni-Cr metal foam was highest, and decreased in the order of SS-316 metal foam, conventional MPFF design, and carbon cloth. This trend was explained based on the effective permeability of the gas flow-field. Lower permeability values result in more tortuous path for the gases and consequently in an increased pressure drop which enhanced the cell performance. |
