Study of forming process effects on the wrinkling and thinning percentage of micro-channels with a serpentine layout

The present study uses lubricated and non-lubricated stamping processes to fabricate metallic bipolar plates (MBPPs) with a thickness of 0.1 mm from SS3316 with a serpentine flow field. Then, experimental tests, together with the finite element (FE) model, were utilized to define the directional thickness distribution. According to the results, using a friction factor of 0.1 during the FE analysis can provide accurate results in terms of thickness prediction under lubricated conditions. Furthermore, the largest thinning percentages in the modified conditions were found to be 27.02%, 30.40%, and 26.00% in the longitudinal, diagonal, and transverse directions, respectively, indicating that the diagonal direction is the most critical one. Finally, the effect of the lubricating condition on the wrinkling of the sample was investigated. According to the results, using the lubricated condition during the stamping process augments the wrinkling of the bipolar plate, and the wrinkling of the bipolar plate’s margin was not symmetrical.