• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.345-348
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• 2008

Metallic bipolar plate for molten carbonate fuel cell(MCFC) is composed of the shielded slot plate and the center plate. Among these, the center plate plays an important role in gas sealing. Therefore, manufacturing of the center plate is considered one of the key issues in MCFC. The center plate is manufactured by bending process. In bending process, springback and recoiling are two main problems. The aim of this article is to optimize the bending process of the center plate regardless of springback and recoiling. To achieve this goal, we proposed the punch having step to reduce springback and recoiling. Using finite element method and $L_9$ orthogonal array, we determined the main factors in the center plate bending process. And we found the optimal bending process condition for the MCFC center plate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.220-223
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• 2009

Metallic bipolar plate for molten carbonate fuel cell(MCFC) is composed of the shielded slot plate and the center plate. Among these, the center plate plays an important role in gas sealing. Therefore, manufacturing of the center plate is considered one of the key issues in MCFC. The center plate is manufactured by bending process. In bending process, springback and recoiling are two main problems. By using the modified punch shape with 'step', springback and recoil are reduced. The aim of this article is to find the effect of modified punch shape. So, the bending stress along thickness direction and material direction were investigated using FEM.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.133-142
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• 2022

This paper reviews bipolar plate materials and coatings for polymer electrolyte fuel cell. First, six roles and 10 requirements of the bipolar plate are described in detail. Secondly, type of materials for the bipolar plate and their advantages and disadvantages are mentioned. Thirdly, different metallic materials are introduced in terms of electrical and thermal conductivities, corrosion resistance, weight, strength and cost. Finally, various types of coating materials and methods were briefly reviewed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.131.1-131.1
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• 2010

고분자연료전지(PEMFC)에서 기체확산층(GDL)은 다공성의 카본 종이/천 위에 마이크로한 다공층을 가치는 구조로 촉매층을 지지하고 촉매층과 분리판 사이의 전류전도체 역할을 한다. 또한 촉매층에 연료와 공기 확산 및 생성된 물의 통로 역할을 하며 소수성인 전기전도성 물질로 이루어져 있다. 현재 연료전지에 쓰이는 가스확산층은 대부분 국외 회사에서 제조 수입 사용하는 현황이고 국내에서는 협진 I&C가 연구하고 있으나 상용화는 아직 이루어지지 않고 있다. 본 연구는 탄소섬유의 전도성을 개선하고자 탄소섬유 표면에 금속코팅 시 최적의 접촉계면유지를 위한 표면처리 방법 및 공정을 조사 분석 후 최적 개선방법(농도/온도/압력/시간)을 설정하고자 하였다. 또한 선정된 공정인자별 수준별 시험 후 샘플링 된 시료를 토대로 금속물질이 탄소섬유 표면에 코팅(도금)된 금속-탄소섬유를 대하여 평가하여 최적화시키고자 탄소섬유로부터 carbon paper GDL의 모재를 개발할 계획이다. 앞에서 설명한 바와 같이 탄소섬유를 이용하여 paper making, resin impregnation, molding, carbonization/graphitization의 제조공정을 거쳐 paper형태의 GDL을 생산 및 평가하고자 하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.21-21
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• 1998

새로운 에너지원으로 각광받고 있는 연료전지는 우주선 동력윈으로서의 이용이래, 보다 실용적인 발전 시스템을 목적으로 많은 연구개발이 시도되고 있다. 이러한 연료전지는 사용하는 전해질의 특성으로 인하여 저온형($<300^{\circ}C$) 과 고온형($500^{\circ}C<$)으로 구분된 수 있는데, 저온형 연료전지의 경우는 전극반응 특성상 귀금속 촉매가 필요한 데 비해, 고온형 연료전지는 이러한 귀금속 촉매가 필요없다는 점등에서 다양한 장점을 가지게 된다. 즉, 저온형에 비해 다양한 연료가 가능하고, 대형화에 유리함며, 고온 페열을 이용할 수 있는 점 등을 들 수 있다. 용융탄산염형 연료전지(MFCFC)는 이러한 고온형 연료진지의 장점을 배경으로 현재 대규모의 개발이 진행되고 있다. 그러나 여기에 주로 사용되는 Li-K, Li-Na와 같은 용융탄신엽은 고부식성 전해질로서 대부분의 금속이 산화물을 형성하는 것으로 알려져 있다. MCFC의 분리판은 셀간을 전기적으로 이어주는 역할, 가스의 유로제공 및 가스 Sealing의 역할을 담당하는 부분으로서, 분리판의 부식은 이러한 특성의 저하 및 전해질의 소모를 유발시켜 MCFC의 내구성에 커다란 영향 을 미치는 요인으로 생각되고 있다. 이러한 배경으로부터 Uchida 그룹은 MCFC의 분라판 재료 의 부식거동을 계동적으로 검토하였다. 먼저 Fe에 Ni 과 Cr을 첨가한 재료를 산화성가스 분위기하에서 $(Li+K)CO_3$에 대하여 검토한 결과, Ni과 Cr 둘다 20wt%이상 첨가시, 내식성융 가지는 결 과를 보고하였다2) 이 경우 보호피막으로서 NiO 와 $LiCrO_2$가 작용하는데, $LiCrO_2$가 용융탄산염 중에서 보다 안정한 것으로 부터, Cr의 첨가가 내식성에 기여하는 것으로 판단하였다. 다음 단계 로서 Fe/Cr재료에 용-융탄산염 중에서 안정한 산화물을 형성하는 Al의 첨가효과를 검토하였다. Al의 첨가는 더욱 내식성을 향상시키는 것이 발견되었고, 약 4wt%의 첨가로 충분한 내식성을 가지 는 것을 보고 하였다. 그러나 이러한 안정한 산화물에 의한 내식성 향상은 전기진도도의 희생을 바탕으로 한 것으로서, 다읍 단계로서 Ti산화물의 반도체적인 특성을 이용하고자 제 4의 원소로서 Ti첨가를 시도하였다. 그러나 Fe/Cr/AVTi재료가 뛰어난 내식성을 가지는 것은 관찰되었으나, 전도도 향상에는 기여하지 못하는 것이 보고되었다. 현재 MCFC는 실용화를 위한 고성능화의 하나로서 가압하에서의 운전을 시도하고 있다. 이 러한 가압하에서의 운전은 기전력의 향상 및 전극반응의 촉진 등으로 출력의 향상을 가져오나. 현재 문제로 되고 있는 Cathode극인 NiO의 용해/석출 현상을 가속화하는 결과를 초래해, 이에대 한 대책으로서 Li-K보다 NiO의 용해가 적은 Li-Na탄산염으로의 전환이 진행되고 있다. 이러한 배경으로부터 Uchida그룹에서 개발한 FeiCr/AVTi재료와 현재 분리판 재료로 사용증인 SUS 310, S SUS 316재료에 대해. 산화성 분위기의 5기압까지의 가압하에서, Li-K, Li-Na탄산염에 대하여 부 식거동을 검토한 결과, 가압하에서 내식성이 향상되는 것이 발견되었다. 이유로서는 가압하에서 용융탄산엽의 증가된 산화력으로 보다 치밀한 내식성 산화물 피막이 형성되기 때문으로 생각되고 있다. 또한 Li-K, Li-Na탄산염에서의 부식의 정도에는 차이가 거의 없었으나, SUS 316의 경우 탄산염에 젖은 부분에서 내식성 피막이 형성되지 않는 이상부식현상이 관찰되었다. 재료간의 내식성 정도에서는 Fe/Cr/Al/Ti이 가장 내식성이 뛰어났으며, SUS 310 또한 뛰어난 내식성을 보였다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.308-315
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• 2009

Because the attenuation of AE signal in composite materials is relatively higher than that of metallic materials, it is required to develop a damage assessment technique less affected by the attenuation property of composite materials in order to use AE sensing as a damage detection method. In the signal processing procedure, it is profitable to use the leading wave that arrives first because the leading wave is less influenced by the boundary conditions. Using wavelet transform, we investigated the frequency characteristics of impact induced AE signals focused on the leading wave in advance and chose the key factors to discriminate the damaged condition quantitatively. In this research, we established a damage assessment technique using the sharing percentage of the wavelet detail components of AE signal, and conducted a low-velocity impact test on composite laminates to confirm the feasibility of the proposed signal processing method.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.348-351
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• 2006

Bipolar plate, which forms about 50% of the stack cost, is an important core part with polymer electrolyte membrane in PEMFC. Bipolar plates have been commonly fabricated from graphite meterial having high electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance. Lately, many researchers have concentrated their efforts on the development of metallic bipolar plate and stainless steel has been considered as a potential material for metallic bipolar plate because of its high strength, chemical stability, low gas permeability and applicability to mass production. However, it has been reported that its inadequate corrosion behavior under PEMFC environment lead to a deterioration of membrane by dissolved metal ions and an increase in contact resistance by the growth of passive film therefore, its corrosion resistance as well as contact resistance must be improved for bipolar plate application. In this work, several types of coating were applied to 316L and their electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance were evaluated In the simulated PEMFC environment. Application of coating gave rise to low interfacial contact resistances below $19m{\Omega}cm^2$ under the compress force of $150N/cm^2$. It also made the corrosion potential to shift in the posit ive direct ion by 0.3V or above and decreased the corrosion current from ca. $9{\mu}A/cm^2$ to ca. $0.5{\mu}A/cm^2$ in the mixed solution of $0.1N\;N_2SO_4$ and 2ppm HF A coat ing layer under potentiostatic control of 0.6V and $0.75V_{SCE}$ for 500 hours or longer showed some instabilities, however, no significant change in coat Ing layer were observed from Impedance data. In addition, the corrosion current maintained less than $1{\mu}A/cm^2$ for most of time for potentiostatic tests. It indicates that high electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance can be obtained by application of coatings in the present work.

• Composites Research
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.46-53
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• 2001

In this research, damage behavior of singly oriented ply (SOP) fiber metal laminate (FML) subjected to concentrated load was studied. The static indentation tests were conducted to study fiber orientation effect on damage behavior of FML. During the static indentation tests, acoustic emission technique (AE) was adopted to study damage characteristics of FML. AE signals were obtained by using AE sensor with 150kHz resonance frequency and the signals were compared with indentation curves of FML. The damage process of SOP FML was divided by three parts, i.e., crack initiation, crack propagation, and penetration. The AE characteristics during crack initiation show that the micro crack is initiated at lower ply of the plate, then propagate along the thickness of the plate with creating tiber debonding. The crack grow along the fiber direction with occurring 60∼80dB AE signal. During the penetration, the fiber breakage was observed. As fiber orientation increases, talc fiber breakage occurs more frequently. The AE signal behaviors support these results. Cumulative AE counts could well predict crack initiation and crack propagation and AE amplitude were useful for the prediction of damage failure mode.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.295-300
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• 2010

Metal bipolar plate applied to Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell is getting most attractive due to their good feasibility of mass production and low cost. But it is one of the immediate causes of performance decline because it is difficult to reduce channel pitch of metal bipolar plate. In this study, mesh was inserted in between bipolar plate and GDL to obtain uniform contact pressure without reducing channel pitch. The section measuring and performance test were carried out to confirm the mesh structure distributes contact pressure equally in reacting area. The performance of 3 type mesh structures developed in this study were higher than the normal cell at all over the current range. Especially, it showed that the mesh cell performance was increased and pressure drop was decreased with diminishing mesh gap size. The Mesh structure was more sensitive to humidification and contact pressure change than the normal cell.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.129-136
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• 2010

The corrosion behaviors of 316L stainless steel were investigated in simulated anodic and cathodic environments for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) by using electrochemical measurement techniques. Interfacial contact resistance(ICR) between the stainless steel and gas diffusion layer(GDL) was also measured. The possibility of 316L was evaluated as a substitute material for the graphite bipolar plate of PEMFC. The value of ICR decreased with an increase in compaction stress(20 N/$cm^2$~220 N/$cm^2$) showing the higher values than the required value in PEMFC condition. Although 316L was spontaneously passivated in simulated cathodic environment, its passive state was unstable in simulated anodic environment. Potentiostatic and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurement results showed that the corrosion resistance in cathodic condition was higher and more stable than that in anodic condition. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and inductively coupled plasma(ICP) were used to analyze the surface morphology and the metal ion concentration in electrolytes.