Adaptive state-of-health temperature sensitivity characteristics for durability improvement of PEM fuel cells

Abstract

To obtain the temperature sensitivity characteristics of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell under different degradation levels, accelerated durability tests and temperature sensitivity tests of the fuel cell are first performed, and the temperature characteristics under different degradation states are analyzed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization curve. Besides, an adaptive state-of-health transient thermal model of fuel cells is developed to investigate the effect of operating temperature on the internal gas concentration and hydrothermal distribution characteristics of the fuel cell from a mechanistic perspective. The experimental results of temperature sensitivity validate that the adaptive state-of-health transient thermal model can effectively monitor the steady and transient performance of the fuel cell. Subsequently, a mathematical model is proposed to describe the relationship among the load current, state of health, and optimal temperature using the temperature sensitivity test data and the transient thermal model of the adaptive state of health, which provides important insights into the optimal temperature range tailored to the current state of health of fuel cells to ensure efficient and stable operation of fuel cells all the time and contributes to the fine design of an optimal degradation adaptive temperature control strategy.