• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.389-391
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• 2009

The performance loss as pressurized by inside components like GDL and bipolar plate happened when assembling the PEMFC stack with clamping force. Numerical analysis of Gasket was carried out to analyze distribution of clamping pressure about the inside components. In case of the gasket, Mooney-Rivlin model which is the Strain Energy Function was used for numerical analysis. This result made the stress distribution of bipolar plate to expect.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.180-183
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• 2009

Composite bipolar plates offer several advantages of low cost, light weight, and ease of manufacturing compared to traditional graphite plate. However, it is difficult to achieve both high electrical conductivity and high flexural strength. In this study, the hybrid carbons filled epoxy composite bipolar plates were fabricated to test electrical conductivity and flexural properties. Graphite powders were used as the main conducting filler and continuous carbon fiber fabrics were inserted to improve the mechanical properties of the composite. This hybrid composite showed improved in-plane electrical conductivity and flexural property. The moldability of the hybrid composite was also improved comparing to the continuous prepreg composite. This study suggested that the continuous carbon fiber inserted graphite/epoxy composites can be a potential candidate material to overcome the disadvantages of conventional graphite composite or continuous prepreg composite bipolar plates.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.153-154
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• 2012

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.283-291
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• 2011

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) use the bipolar plate of various materials between electrolyte and contact electrode for the stable hydrogen ion exchange activation. The bipolar plate of various materials has representatively graphite and stainless steel. Specially, stainless steels have advantage for low cost and high product rate. In this study, SUS 316 was effectively coated with 600 nm thick F-doped tin oxide (SnOx:F) by electron cyclotron resonance-metal organic chemical vapor deposition and investigated in simulated fuel cell bipolar plates. The results showed that an F-doped tin oxide (SnOx:F) coating enhanced the corrosion resistance of the alloys in fuel cell bipolar plates, though the substrate steel has a significant influence on the behavior of the coating. Coating SUS 316 for fuel cell bipolar plates steel further improved the already excellent corrosion resistance of this material. After coating, the increased ICR values of the coated steels compared to those of the fresh steels. The SnOx:F coating seems to add an additional resistance to the native air-formed film on these stainless steels.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.643-645
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• 2008

Stainless steel 304 and 316 plates were deposited with the multi-layered coatings of titanium film (0.1um) and gold film (1-2um) by an electron beam evaporation method. The XRD patterns of the stainless steel plates modified with the multi-layered coatings showed the crystalline phases of the external gold film and the stainless steel substrate. Surface microstructural morphologies of the stainless steel bipolar plates modified with multi-layered coatings were observed by AFM and FE-SEM images. The external gold films formed on the stainless steel plates showed microstructure of grains of about 100nm diameter. The grain size of the external surface of the stainless steel plates increased with the gold film thickness. The electrical resistance and water contact angle of the stainless steel bipolar plates covered with multi-layered coatings were examined with the thickness of the external gold film.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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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.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.199-205
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• 2011

Stainless steel 304 and 316 plates were deposited with the multi-layered coatings of titanium film (0.1 um) and gold film (1-2 um) by an electron beam evaporation method. The XRD patterns of the stainless steel plates modified with the multi-layered coatings showed the crystalline phases of the external gold film and the stainless steel substrate. Surface microstructural morphologies of the stainless steel bipolar plates modified with multi-layered coatings were observed by AFM and FE-SEM images. The external gold films formed on the stainless steel plates showed micro structure of grains of about 100 nm diameter. The grain size of the external surface of the stainless steel plates increased with the gold film thickness. The electrical resistance and water contact angle of the stainless steel bipolar plates covered with multi-layered coatings were examined with the thickness of the external gold film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.289-292
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• 2009

The fabrication method of glass bipolar plates for micro PEM fuel cell application has been established and performance evaluation has been carried out. The advantages of glass bipolar plates for micro PEM fuel cells are light weight, high chemical resistivity, and easy manufacture. The MEMS fabrication process of anisotropic wet etching, thermal & UV bonding along with metal layer deposition has been introduced. From performance evaluation, it was shown that the micro fuel cell with a metal layer deposited on the reactive area yielded higher power density than the one without it. But both power densities of the two cases showed out to be adequate with the current status of micro fuel cell technology.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.499-505
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• 2012

The fuel cell is a very promising power generation system combining the benefits of extremely low emissions, high efficiency, ease of maintenance and durability. In order to promote the commercialization of fuel cells, a flexible forming process, in which a hyper-elastic rubber is adopted as a medium to transmit forming pressure, is suggested as an efficient and cost effective manufacturing method for fuel cell bipolar plates. In this study, the ability of this flexible forming process to produce the micro channel arrays on metallic bipolar plates was first demonstrated experimentally. Then, a finite element (FE) model was built and validated through comparisons between simulated and experimental results. The effects of key process parameters on the forming performance such as applied load and punch velocity were investigated. As a result, appropriate process parameter values allowing high dimensional accuracy without failure were suggested.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.353-358
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• 2013

The current interruption method is considered to be an efficient way of measuring the resistance of a fuel cell. In this study, the ohmic area specific resistances (ASRs) of polymer electrolyte fuel cells with different types of bipolar plates were evaluated using the current interruption method. The ohmic ASRs of both a fuel cell with graphite bipolar plates and a fuel cell with graphite foil-based assembled bipolar plates decreased as the current density increased. On the other hand, with increasing cell temperature, the ohmic ASRs of a fuel cell with graphite bipolar plates were decreased by a reduction in the proton transport resistance through the membrane, and the ohmic ASRs of a fuel cell with graphite foil-based assembled bipolar plates were increased by the differences in thermal expansion between different components of the bipolar plates.