Dynamic performance of a high-temperature PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cell – Modelling and fuzzy control of purging process

• A semi-empirical dynamic voltage model of HT-PEMFC is developed for control design.
• The model is developed via fitting and validated with experimental results.
• A fuzzy controller is designed to schedule the purging based on the obtained model.

To improve fuel utilization of HT-PEMFC (high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell), which normally operates under dead-end mode, with properly periodical purging to flush out the accumulated water vapour in the anode flow-field is necessary, otherwise the performance of HT-PEMFC would drop gradually. In this paper, a semi-empirical dynamic voltage model of HT-PEMFC is developed for controller design purpose via fitting the experimental data and validated with experimental results. Then, a fuzzy controller is designed to schedule the purging based on the obtained model. According to the result, the developed model well reflects transient characteristics of HT-PEMFC voltage and the fuzzy controller offers good performance for purging scheduling under uncertain load demands.