Manufacturing of titanium bipolar plates via stamping process for PEM fuel cells

Bipolar plates (BPPs) play an important role in PEMfuel cells from weight and cost points of view. In thispaper, the manufacturing of titanium BPPs is studiedexperimentally and numerically. In this regard, astamping die with a parallel pattern is conducted toperform the experiments. Then, the process wassimulated using the finite element (FE) method. Bycomparing simulation and experiment results, it wasfound that the results are in good agreement andhereupon, the accuracy of the FE model was verified.To evaluate the formability of the titanium sheet (witha thickness of ۰.۱ mm), a set of FE experiments weredesigned using the response surface methodology(RSM). The die clearance, forming velocity, andfriction coefficient were considered input parameters,and the maximum thickness reduction of the sheet wasassumed to be the output. Contour plots were used toanalyze the effects of the input parameters on theformability of the titanium sheet. The results revealedthat a lower friction coefficient causes an increase inthickness reduction and finally tearing in the formedBPPs. Moreover, changing the forming velocity has nosignificant effect on the maximum thickness reduction.

کلیدواژه ها:

PEM fuel cell ، Bipolar plate ، Titanium sheet ، Thickness reduction.