An Application of On-Line Tracking Simulator to a PEMFC

The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) presents number of control problems due to its complex dynamics. Water management is known to be one of the critical issues for efficient operation of the PEMFC. But water transport process inside PEMFC is a complex phenomenon, making it hard to predict output voltage at highly humidified condition by use of off-line simulator. Recently physical model-based controls of PEMFC are proposed to achieve efficient operation of PEMFC. However to realize the model-based control of PEMFC at high energy regions, the construction of high precision, high speed dynamical simulator with water process model becomes indispensable. We have developed an on-line tracking simulator, simultaneously running with actual process to adjust model parameter of the simulator to the actual process in real-time. By applying on-line tracking simulator to PEMFC experiment, we have performed an experimental study of on-line tracking simulator to a PEMFC. The experimental study validated the use of on-line tracking simulator to predict accurately the output voltage of PEMFC even at highly humidified condition where uncertain liquid water processes becomes apparent