Assessment of fuel cell's endplate out of plane deformation using digital image correlation

Abstract

The achievement of proper electrochemical performance in proton exchange membrane fuel cells depends on a number of factors, among which the difficulty in obtaining a uniform pressure distribution over the whole fuel cell active area. For a given stacking design, contact pressure levels are usually controlled by selecting an appropriate external clamping pressure on the endplates. Hence, the actual out-of-plane deformation of the endplates is believed to play a critical role. The goal of this study is to investigate this aspect by using an optical full-field measurement technique based on stereoscopic digital images correlation. The preliminary results reported in this paper, obtained by testing a PEMFC with 13 mm thick Cu endplates, shows that the endplates bend noticeably under loading, leading to an uneven distribution of the out-of-plane deformation field. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.