With the growth in power and size of energy conversion devices, the consideration of current distribution inside cells and stacks becomes increasingly important. In light of understanding the effect of the material properties of graphitic compound materials on current distribution, we developed a novel measurement cell based on a segmented current feed and a segmented measurement board. Using this cell, we determined the cross‐conduction of current in three commercial graphitic compound materials used for the manufacturing of bipolar plates. The conduction behaviors, with respect to compacting pressure as well as total current density, were explained by differences in resistance of conduction pathways. Large observed differences between the materials were discussed in terms of the ratio of through‐plane and in‐plane resistivities. Additionally, we compared several methods to emulate defect sites, in order to evaluate their effect using the novel measurement cell and showed the effect of their size on the current distribution. Finally, we discuss improvements on the measurement setup.

中文翻译：

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石墨复合双极板材料的电流分布及其缺陷部位的影响

随着能量转换装置的功率和尺寸的增长，对电池和堆叠内部的电流分布的考虑变得越来越重要。考虑到了解石墨复合材料的材料特性对电流分布的影响，我们开发了一种基于分段电流馈送和分段测量板的新型测量单元。使用该单元，我们确定了用于制造双极板的三种商用石墨复合材料中的电流交叉传导。关于压紧压力以及总电流密度的传导行为是通过传导路径的电阻差异来解释的。讨论了观察到的材料之间的较大差异，涉及的是贯通电阻率和平面电阻率之比。另外，我们比较了几种模拟缺陷部位的方法，以便使用新型测量单元评估其影响，并显示其尺寸对电流分布的影响。最后，我们讨论了对测量设置的改进。