Study on the levelling process of the current collector for the molten carbonate fuel cell based on curvature integration method

•A simple and effective method for designing the levelling process is proposed.•Bending behaviour of the current collector is studied through the FE analysis.•Optimal levelling condition is calculated based on a curvature integration method.•The curvature of the current collector is down to zero after the levelling process.

The current collector for the molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) is manufactured from the sheet metal forming process. After the forming process, the current collector is bent resulting in a specific curvature (κi) in the direction in which trapezoidal protrusions are formed due to springback. In the stack of the MCFC, small deformation of the current collector can bring about defects in the electrolyte, non-uniform contact and difficulties in assembling the stack. Therefore, the curvature of the current collector should be minimized in order to reduce defects which can cause critical damage in the long-term operation. In order to straighten the current collector, the levelling process using three rolls was employed. In this work, a simple and effective method for designing the levelling process was proposed. An analytic model and the finite element analysis were used in combination. The optimal curvature minimizing the resultant curvature and the resultant moment of the current collector down to zero was calculated from the bending moment–curvature relationship. The bending moment–curvature relationship of the current collector was determined from the finite element analysis of uniform bending using the simulation results of the three-stage forming process. In the analytic model based on curvature integration method, the proper roll arrangement corresponding to the optimal curvature was calculated. Experiments were conducted using the calculated roll arrangement. The current collector was levelled nearly flat using the levelling process. After the levelling process, the flattened current collector was easily assembled with a centre plate and ensuring uniform contact with the electrolyte.