Fuel cell modeling With dSPACE and OPAL-RT real time platforms

This paper presents the real time modeling of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack using two different real time platforms: RT-Lab and dSPACE. Simulation results are compared with a 500 W fuel cell and show very good agreement with experimental results. The model is suitable for real time simulation which is a key issue in many applications such as hardware in the loop applications (HIL). Indeed, such simulator associated with a power supply, constitute a fuel cell emulator. It can be used in order to do tests in automotive applications. Using the fuel cell emulator, the hydrogen consumption is equal to zero, therefore the cost is reduced.