Integrated Effect of Flow Field Misalignment and Gas Diffusion Layer Compression/Intrusion on High Temperature – Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell Performance


 Misalignment in the flow field plates of a high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) due to manufacturing tolerances, assembly process, or unavoidable vibration during cell operation can effect its performance and durability. This study investigates the effect of flow field plate misalignment and its concomitant impact with varying clamping pressures on HT-PEMFC operation. We consider six degrees of cathode flow field misalignment, varying from 0% to 100% with respect to the anode flow field. Clamping pressures ranging from 1 to 2 MPa are applied to the various cases of misalignment to study their effect on GDL deformation and intrusion into the channels. The structural analysis shows that as the misalignment increases from 0 to 100%, the GDL deformation increases by 41% and exaggerates at higher clamping pressures. The misalignment results in the sagging of membrane electrode assembly, and the amplitude of wave nature is proportional to the degree of misalignment and clamping pressure. As a result, considerable variance in current distribution is observed, resulting in a 4.7% loss in performance. According to the observations, a misalignment of 60% is tolerable with minimal performance loss and negligible non-uniformity in cell distributions.