Fourier, a hydrogen electrolyzer startup, is developing proton exchange membrane (PEM) stacks that produce hydrogen by splitting water using electricity. During development, the company encountered challenges in designing elastomeric seals for its thin bipolar plates, where shallow seal grooves made conventional seal design guidelines unsuitable and repeated physical prototyping time-consuming and costly.
To address this, Fourier used SimScale‘s cloud-based engineering simulation platform. Using the Marc nonlinear structural solver, the team evaluated custom seal geometries, contact pressure, manufacturing tolerance limits, and seal stability under pressurization before physical production. CFD simulations were also performed to analyse flow distribution through the stack’s narrow channels, helping verify that water was distributed uniformly across the cells to reduce the risk of membrane dehydration. The simulation-based workflow helped Fourier evaluate sealing and flow performance before manufacturing, providing confidence in the stack design ahead of physical testing.
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