Model Library of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells for System Hardware and Control Design

The trade-offs among dynamic response, efficiency, and robustness to external factors are fundamental to the optimization of hardware and controls for fuel cell systems. No previously published model of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) has the capability to simultaneously provide dynamic modeling capabilities, a clear representation of physical configurations, adjustable fidelity, and flexible interfaces. This paper presents the first such library, explains key aspects of the library’s architecture, and demonstrates simulations under representative scenarios. The models, implemented in the acausal Modelica modeling language, are quasi-three-dimensional (quasi-3D), discretizing the fuel cell and its layers along the directions from the anode to the cathode and down the channel length.