Reliability Evaluation of an Open‐Cathode PEMFC at Operating State and Longtime Vibration by Mechanical Loads

Abstract

Reliability and durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are one of the most complex issues in real applications' environment. Especially, when it subjects to the various mechanical loads and vibrations. This topic requires more attention for research and experimental works. In this study, the effect of mechanical loads was investigated on an open‐cathode PEMFC in operating state. Several long time vibration tests have been applied on non‐operating PEMFC, and the performance of the fuel cell was evaluated during the test. Hydrogen leakage as a key parameter was investigated in performance monitoring instead of measuring torque on compression bolts. The vibration tests were consisted of sine, shock and random for X, Y and Z axes in operating state and random vibration in non‐operating state of PEMFC. The experimental results in operating state were indicated that the fuel cell performance has not been affected by the proposed vibrations. Furthermore, the test results of non‐operating state have been shown that the performance of PEMFC reduces about 0.6% in each four‐hour step of the vibration test. In addition, the experiments reveal that if the mechanical loads and vibrations cause physical damage on the fuel cell components, they can change the performance and reliability of the fuel cell.

Interaction of Vibration and Air Flow-Accelerating Droplet Emission from the Gas Diffusion Layer of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

“…Passenger vehicles generally experience vibrations in the range of 8-16 Hz due to the unevenness of the road and the oscillation of the axel and wheel with the suspension system [4]. The long-term vibration behaviors may cause and exacerbate the defects of PEMFC components, such as pinholes, cracks, and delamination, having influence on the performance, durability, and reliability of the PEMFC stack [5,6]. Therefore, the effect and function mechanism of vibrations on PEMFCs have gained more and more attention from researchers, mainly by means of experiments and numerical simulations for further insight.…”

Vibration mode analysis of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack

“…bolt and gasket, etc.) may be the reason for the bolt torque release [3,35] and hydrogen leakage [16,36]. In addition, comparing the effective masses, the main vibration modes of the stacks can be identified.…”

Effects of mechanical compression on the performance of polymer electrolyte fuel cells and analysis through in-situ characterisation techniques - A review

“…These effects were assessed under: i) harmonic [72][73][74], ii) random [75,76], and iii) real-world vibrations [77][78][79][80][81]. The reader can refer to the review study reported by Haji Hosseinloo and…”