Modeling thermal dynamics in miniature PEM fuel cells under dry conditions

Water and thermal management have been identified as technical hurdles to the successful implementation of fuel cell power systems. In low power applications, miniature PEM fuel cells show significant promise as a competitor to lithium-ion batteries. Significant design work is underway to improve the specific power density of fuel cells. However, little attention has been given to characterizing transient response in these miniature applications to enable gains in system design, optimization and control. This work develops, calibrates and experimentally validates a dynamic control-oriented thermal model of a miniature fuel cell. Of critical importance, this model targets operation on dry conditions with no reactant pre-treatment. The dynamic response under changes in load and fuel stoichiometry are well captured over a range of operating conditions.