Optimization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell’s end plates

Abstract

In this study, we present the optimization of end plates to produce uniform pressure and low content on the gas diffusion layer in polymer membrane fuel cell. For this purpose the end plates and the influence of parameters on the gas diffusion layer pressure has been investigated. Parameters studied are the thickness of the end plate, the depth of the bipolar plates groove and the clamping pressure applied to the end plates. After defining their values in the Abaqus finite element software, mechanical analysis has been carried out to examine the stress distribution on the gas diffusion layer and the results have been extracted. By extracting the results of the analysis and importing into the Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference Systems in MATLAB software, a numerical relationship between the influential values and the outputs is extracted. By investigating these relationships and defining the objective function, we investigate the algorithm required for the equation and uniformity of stress distribution on the gas diffusion layer. In this research, the bee algorithm has been used and it has been evaluating the effective parameters of the optimum fuel cell state. After final review of the results, the suggested optimum state of the bee algorithm is the thickness of the end plate 12 mm, the depth of the bipolar plate groove is 0.1077 mm and the clamping pressure is 11.0199 MPa.