High Fidelity Model for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Power Module Considering Internal Power Losses

Abstract

A high‐fidelity model has been developed in this paper to characterize a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell power module. The uniqueness of this model is that it takes into account of the internal temperature of the stack and internal power consumptions by the auxiliary systems. To simplify the model representation, an equivalent circuit model is developed by using operating condition dependent fictitious circuit components. The parameters of these components are nonlinear functions of fuel cell operating conditions, most notably, the output power level and the stack temperature. The specific values of these parameters are determined through a series of experiments on a physical fuel cell power module. The data are then used to construct a nonlinear model to cover a wide fuel cell operating range. To validate the developed model, five characteristic features are used in the experiments. Comparing against the experimental results, it is shown that the developed model produces the minimal amount of errors in comparison with the theoretical model, and a previously developed model. When used to represent a physical fuel cell power source in practice, this model improves the quality of control system design and analysis.