Estimating equivalent circuit parameters of proton exchange membrane fuel cell using the current change method

This paper presents an equivalent circuit parameters estimation method for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The proposed parameters extraction method is based on the current change technique, which intentionally changes the output current of fuel cell to obtain the transient waveform of the terminal voltage. The parameter values of the equivalent circuit are found by analyzing transient waveform measurement results from the current change test. Compared with electrical impedance spectroscopy method, the current change method is proposed as a simpler technique for obtaining fuel cells properties. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the current change method, the method is tested on a practical PEMFC stack. Good agreements between the experimental and simulated results for both the steady state and dynamic behavior of the fuel cell stack are obtained; the test results show the proposed method is efficient and reliable.