Local Voltage Degradations (Drying and Flooding) Analysis Through 3D Stack Thermal Modeling

Temperature is a key parameter of fuel cell efficiency. In air cooled fuel cell stacks, large temperature disparities are observed. This temperature distribution has a significant influence on cell behavior in the stack, resulting in voltage disparities. The aim of this study, thus, is to correlate the temperature distribution in the stack to local voltage degradations, such as membrane drying and electrodes flooding. Indeed, the temperature has a strong impact on the water distribution in the cells because the saturation pressure is thermo-dependent. As a result, the hottest cells are prone to drying, whereas the coolest cells tend to be flooded, depending on the operating conditions. Measurements show that while drying, cell voltages decrease slowly and continuously until complete shutdown of the cells, whereas flooding results in quick voltage drops. Under drying conditions, voltage can be improved by increasing the inlet gas humidity or decrease in the stoichiometric ratio. In the case of flooding cells, purging the stack or reducing the inlet gas humidity is necessary to avoid complete shutdown of the cells. Consequently, small cell temperature variations through the stack can be responsible for large voltage variations from one cell to another. The cooling device must thus be optimized to reduce stack temperature nonuniformity.