Transient Response Analysis of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Considering Equivalent Electric Circuit and Mass Conservation

Since PEFC (Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell) can produce electricity at high power density with a simple stack constitution, PEFC is expected to be applied to electric vehicles and to distributed power sources. In these applications, PEFC may be operated at a wide range of load and may have frequent starts and stops. Therefore it is important to elucidate the transient characteristics of PEFC. In this study, we made a mathematical model to predict the transient behavior of PEFC, considering an equivalent electric circuit and a mass conservation equation. Important physical properties, such as proton conductivity and double-layer capacitance of polymer electrolyte membrane were measured to be incorporated into the model. By using the model, we calculated the response of cell potential to a rapid change of load current, and compared the numerical calculation with the experimental result. After the rapid change of load current, the cell potential varies in 10⁻¹ s accompanied by the charge and discharge of the electric double layer capacitance, and then it changes in 10¹ s by the re-distribution of water in the polymer electrolyte membrane.