Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers (한국자동차공학회논문집)

The Korean Society of Automotive Engineers (한국자동차공학회)
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A Design of the Cooling Channel in the Bipolar Plate of PEMFC Using Experimental Design Method

실험설계법을 이용한 연료전지 분리판 냉각채널 설계

  • Zhang, Xia (School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Chonnam National University) ;
  • Kwon, Oh-Jung (School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Chonnam National University) ;
  • Oh, Byeong Soo (School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Chonnam National University)
  • 장하 (전남대학교 공과대학 기계공학부) ;
  • 권오정 (전남대학교 공과대학 기계공학부) ;
  • 오병수 (전남대학교 공과대학 기계공학부)
  • Received : 2015.05.26
  • Accepted : 2015.06.09
  • Published : 2015.09.01
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Abstract

The heat generation in PEMFC is proportional to the electrical power output. Therefore, when the fuel cell produced the maximum output, the maximum heat was generated. In order to maintain the performance of the fuel cell, thermal management is as important as pressure and humidity conditions of the reactive gas. In this study, considering the thermal management for the maximum output operation, the optimal cooling channel design specifications of bipolar plate are found for the highest cooling performance. In the current bipolar plate research, many studies focused on analyzing various factors individually but there is no more study on the interaction between design factors. In this study, the heat transfer was simulated by COMSOL Multiphysics with the main design factors which are designated shape, width and rib length. One of the experimental design methods, general full factorial design method, was used to analyze the main factor and interaction on average temperature and maximum temperature for the design specification of fuel cell bipolar plate. When analysis result shows that all of these three factors are highly important, it can confirm that the interaction occurs between the factors.

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References

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