Analysis of overall heat balance in self-heated proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells for temperature predictions

The effect of self-heating and cooling by natural convection on a sustainable temperature of PEM fuel cell stacks was studied. Overall mass and heat balance equations are combined to predict self-heated temperatures at various operating conditions. Analyses show that the effect of a heat loss coefficient is more important than other variables such as air flow rate and surrounding temperature. The stack design variables such as active cell area and number of cells also have significant influence on self-controlled temperature. A lower Ohmic resistance of cells is expected to allow a wider range of current load applications. The proposed model can also be used to evaluate heat loss coefficient from measured stack performance and temperature data. Experiments performed on a seven-cell stack of 50 cm2 active area were used to provide data for the validation of the model.