Investigation of the effect of channel blockages on the performance of PEM fuel cells used in electric vehicles

In today's world, energy demand is increasing day by day due to factors such as industrialization and increasing human population. This situation has pushed mankind to seek an alternative, clean and sustainable energy source and technology. At this point, hydrogen energy and fuel cell technology are seen as the energy source of the future. Fuel cells are electrochemical energy devices that convert the chemical energy in hydrogen fuel directly into electrical energy. This thesis is basically about the development of bipolar plates, which are fuel cell components, to provide higher current density. For this purpose, obstacles with different variations in geometric shape, number, height and location were placed on the flow channels in the bipolar plates. In the first stage, the designed models were analyzed using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. Then, the fuel cell with the most efficient BPP flow area and the fuel cell with the standard serpentine design were experimentally tested under the same conditions and current/voltage curves were obtained. As a result, placing barriers on bipolar plates increases the current and power density values of the cell. As a result of the experimental tests, it was observed that the output power of the fuel cell with the cathode plate produced in the optimized barrier shape increased compared to the output power of the fuel cell with the standard serpentine structure. As a result of the study, a fuel cell with increased net power amount obtained from the unit active area of the cell was obtained.