Numerical Investigation of Bending Strength of Composite Sandwich Panel with Grid Core for Use in PEM Fuel Cell Endplates

Endplates are one of the most important components of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell that must apply uniform contact pressure distribution on the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). For this reason, these plates must have good bending rigidity. In this research, the bending behavior of composite sandwich plates has been investigated numerically in order to achieve a composite structure with high bending stiffness for use in the endplates of PEM fuel cells. For this purpose, the bending strength of composite sandwich panels with grid core was evaluated based on the type of material and relevant standards through numerical simulation. Numerical simulation has been performed in Abaqus software using finite element method. The effect of different angles of fibers in and three different geometries of square, triangular and diamond grid core for C/Sic and E-Glass Epoxy materials on the bending behavior of composite sandwich panels were analyzed. The obtained results indicate the better performance of C/Sic materials in the stress test, as well as the more suitable bending behavior of triangular mesh geometry with fiber angles (0-45-90).