Design and Investigation of Honeycomb End Plates for PEM Fuel Cells

Abstract

In this article a new structure of PEM fuel cell end plate is presented. The new structure is known as a honeycomb sandwich panel. Several properties of the presented structure, such as mechanical and thermal behavior, as well as its advantages and disadvantages are introduced. The aim of this paper is to reduce the weight of the while maintaining a better compression force on the PEM fuel cell components. By considering a honeycomb sandwich panel, this structure has lighter weight and more strength and flexibility. In this regard, some mechanical experiments and electrical simulations have been done on the honeycomb structure end plates to provide a comparisom between this new structure and the old structure usually made of steel. These mechanical experiments include pressure and bending tests. The results were evaluated in two cases: with foam and no foam. After analyzing the experimental results, it has been concluded that the honeycomb sandwich panel structure for end plates has many advantages that makes it a good alternative to the old endplate structure.