Keynote: Inverse Design Enables Innovation in Hydrogen Fuel Cells

The development of Toyota's Mirai, the world's first mass-produced, commercially available hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, began in 1992. Since its launch in 2014, Toyota has released the second generation of this vehicle as well as expanded the use cases for the Toyota Fuel Cell System introduced within this vehicle.

In this keynote talk from COMSOL Day: Batteries & Fuel Cells, Yuqing Zhou of the Toyota Research Institute of North America shares how they developed a new inverse design method to come up with innovative flow channel designs within hydrogen fuel cell flow field plates. During the presentation, Zhou also discusses the complexities of hydrogen fuel cells as a multiphysics system that calls for extensive material and structural design optimization to improve performance while reducing the cost.

Dr. Yuqing Zhou is a research scientist at the Toyota Research Institute of North America, where he conducts in-house research on optimization methods for next-generation vehicle development and future mobility applications. He received his Doctorate of Mechanical Engineering degree in 2018 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Zhou holds multiple issued patents and has published more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.

Tip: Learn more about the research in the article titled "Generative Design Puts Hydrogen Fuel Cell Development in High Gear".