Effect of Bolts Assembly on the Deformation and Pressure Distribution of Flow-Channel Plates in Micro-PEMFC

The main aim of this study is to simulate the response of a micro-PEMFC numerically by utilizing a 3-D FEM model while the micro-PEMFC was assembled by three pairs of bolt along the upper and lower portions, respectively, of the end plates. The effects of different bolts locking sequences on the deformation and pressure distributions at flow-channel plates in a micro-PEMFC were investigated. The simulated results showed that if one locked the middle bolt either on the upper or lower portion first, then the obtained warpage, uniformities of deformation and von Mises equivalent stress were superior than those results if one locked either one of the four corner bolts first. Also, among the three pairs of bolts used for assembling the cell, the first locking bolt of the first pair of locking bolt and the first locking bolt of the rest of two pairs of locking bolt were to minimize the warpage and stress should locate on the different portions of the end plates.