Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.7316/KHNES.2017.28.5.492

Development of Lightweight Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) Stack Using Metallic Bipolar Plates for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)  

LEE, SUWON (LIGNex1 Co., Ltd.)
KIM, DOHWAN (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University)
RO, JUNGHO (LIGNex1 Co., Ltd.)
CHO, YOUNGRAE (LIGNex1 Co., Ltd.)
KIM, DOYOUN (LIGNex1 Co., Ltd.)
JU, HYUNCHUL (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University)
Publication Information
Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society / v.28, no.5, 2017 , pp. 492-501 More about this Journal
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.
Keywords
Direct methanol fuel cells; Unmanned aerial vehicle; Lightweight stack; Metal bipolar plate; Stress analysis;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
연도 인용수 순위
1 N. Yang and Y. Kim "Development and Demonstration of 150W Fuel Cell Propulsion System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV), The Transactions of the Korean Hydrogen and New Energy Society, Vol. 23, No. 4, 2012, pp. 300-309.   DOI
2 G. Kim, "Technical Trends for Fuel Cell Aircraft", Current industrial and technological trends in aerospace, Vol. 12, 2004, pp. 95-105.
3 T. H. Bradley, "Modeling, Design and Energy Management of Fuel Cell Systems for Aircrart", Ph. D. Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008.
4 A. K. Sehra and W. Whitlow Jr, "Propulsion and power for 21st century aviation", Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 2004, pp. 199-235.
5 T. Kim, H. Shim, and Sejin Kwon, "Design and Performance Tests of a Fuel Cell System for a Power Source of UAV", Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology, 2007, pp. 282.
6 T. Kim, H. Shim, and Sejin Kwon, "Development of Fuel Cell Power System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle", Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers, 2007, pp. 87-90
7 K. Kim, S. Park, S. O. Cho, K. Choi, and H. Ju, "Development of Lightweight 200-W Direct Methanol Fuel Cell System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Applications and Flight Demonstration", Fuel cells, Vol. 14, No. 5, 2014, pp. 694-700.   DOI