Influence of Tool Profile on the Micro-Channel Drawing Process of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Metallic Bipolar Plates

摘要

Bipolar plate is one of the key components of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). This study aims to explore the application of micro-stamping technology to produce thin metal bipolar plates with the relevant process parameters. Regarding the use of rigid punch on 50 jam-thick stainless steel sheet (SUS 304) for micro-channel stamping process in this study, the channel design is 0.8 × 0.75 mm. Besides, the finite element method and the experimental results are used to analyze the key parameters for micro-stamping process. In this paper, using ULF (updated Lagrangian formulation) concept to establish an elastic-plastic deformation finite element analysis model and scale-factor to modify the calculation could effectively simulate the micro-stamping process for metal bipolar plates. The results point out that the modified material model appears more on keeping in the actual situation and the scale-factor method can also be applied to any thickness of SUS304 stainless steel, which is amended to omit the complex tensile test. The simulation results include the whole deformation history, the relationship between punch load and punch stroke, the distribution of stress, the distribution of strain, the distribution of thickness, and the distribution of channel depth on XZ-plane and YZ-plane, during the micro-stamping process. In addition, regarding changes with different tools radius for micro-stamping process, the results indicate that the area is most likely to rupture in the main channel and the sub-channel of the intersection.