Experimental validation of the polarization curve and the temperature distribution in a PEMFC stack using a one dimensional analytical model

Abstract This paper presents the experimental validation of a one dimensional analytical model developed for a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) stack. The analytical model is developed to simulate a stack formed by N cells, where the experimental validation has been carried out for a stack formed by 3, 5 and 7 cells. The main physical phenomena in a PEMFC such as electrochemistry, mass transfer (hydrogen, oxygen and water – both liquid and gas) have been modeled. The experimental validation has been done with two different variables in order to provide good quality results. The polarization curve and the stack temperature distribution have been selected as validation variables. In order to compare the experimental and the numerical results, a set of experimental tests modifying the main operating conditions such as the cathode stoichiometric, relative humidity in anode and cathode and operating pressure have been performed. The model results show a good agreement also for the different configurations of the stack (3, 5 and 7 cells). The average error is always less than 2% for the polarization curve and for the stack temperature distribution, so the accuracy of the one dimensional analytical model is verified.