TOPSIS multiple-criteria decision support analysis for material selection of metallic bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Several kinds of metallic bipolar plates for PEMFCs are currently being developed in order to meet the demands of cost reduction, stack volume, lower weight and enhanced power density. This work shows an application of the Technique of ranking Preferences by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method for solving the material selection problem of metallic bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), which often involves multiple and conflicting objectives. The proposed methodological tool can aid the material designer in the modeling and selection of suitable materials according to a set of predefined criteria. After introducing the theoretical background, a case study is presented for the material selection of a bipolar plate in a PEFC. A list of all possible choices, from the best to the worst materials, is obtained by taking into account all the material selection criteria, including the cost of production. A user-defined code in Mathematica has been developed to facilitate the implementation of the method. It was shown that the optimum value of each criterion is independent of other criteria values (i.e., no interaction is allowed). The proposed approach may be applied to other problems of material selection of fuel cell components.