Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society (한국수소및신에너지학회논문집)

The Korean Hydrogen and New Energy Society (한국수소및신에너지학회)
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Development of Lightweight Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) Stack Using Metallic Bipolar Plates for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

금속분리판을 이용한 무인기항공기(UAV)용 경량화 DMFC 스택 개발

  • Received : 2017.09.27
  • Accepted : 2017.10.30
  • Published : 2017.10.30
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Abstract

A 900 W scale direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack is designed and fabricated for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications. To meet the volume and weight requirements, metallic bipolar plates are applied to the DMFC stack for the first time wherein POS470FC was chosen as bipolar plate material. To ensure good robustness of the metallic bipolar plate based DMFC stack, finite element method based simulations are conducted using a commercial ANSYS Fluent software. The stress buildup and deformation characteristics on bipolar plates and end plates are analyzed in details. The present DMFC stack exhibits the performance of 1,130 W at 32 V and 35.3 A, clearly demonstrating that it could successfully operate for UAVs requiring around 1,000 W of power.

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References

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