Electrical equivalent circuit modeling and parameter estimation for PEM fuel cell

Increase in global warming, ozone depletion processes originated due to extreme use of fossil fuel for energy generation and increasing demand for environmental friendly energy performance needs design and development of clean and renewable energy sources. Fuel cell is a best alternative as it has negligible green house gases effect, both high power and energy performance. Mathematical models are considered to be best tools for design and simulations of fuel cell based power systems. Many mathematical models have been reported to evaluate the performance of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell in the literature. This paper presents the Electrical Equivalent Circuit Model of PEM fuel cell and experimental method to find equivalent circuit parameters. A constant current loading test is conducted on a 100 W, 8 V PEM fuel cell stack to find its terminal voltage behavior. The parameters of the equivalent circuit are evaluated by using a least square polyfit approximation of experimental and simulated data. The validation of the equivalent circuit parameters is conformed by plotting experimental and simulated results.