Vibration tests on a PEM fuel cell stack usable in transportation application N. Rajalakshmi*, S. Pandian, K.S. Dhathathreyan Centre for Fuel cell Technology (ARCI), 120 Mambakkam Main road, Medavakkam, Chennai 600 100, India article info Article history: Received 29 December 2008 Received in revised form 17 February 2009 Accepted 1 March 2009 Available online 26 March 2009 Keywords: PEMFC Fuel cells Vibration test Transport applications abstract A fuel cell stack for use in transportation or in applications which involves the positioning of such systems in a location of high vibration and shock, is subjected to accelerated stress screening to ascertain the reliability of the stack, mechanical integrity and also to assess the mounting requirements. Such studies have not been well documented in open litera- ture. In this paper, we have done the vibration test analysis on a 500 W Proton Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack developed at our centre by simulating some of the vibra- tion, shock and resonance in the stack and the likelihood of the stack to undergo in any application and evaluated the robustness of the stack. An experimental setup was designed for this purpose consisting of subjecting the PEM fuel cell stack to random and swept-sine excitations on a vibrating platform in three axes and measuring the mechanical response using accelerometers fixed at various locations in the stack. The fuel cell performance (pre-vibration test and post-vibration test) as obtained from polarization studies and the power–amperage curves does not show any significant damage effects, and a post-testing stack inspection showed a minor torque release. Further tests are recom- mended to study the dynamic life test. This study opens up further investigation which the authors propose to carry out in due course. ª 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction A fuel cell is a device that can directly convert chemical to electric and thermal energy. Among different kinds of fuel cells, the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) have the advantage of a low-operational temperature (20–100  C), high power density and lightweight. PEM has gained a lot of attention and is considered as the most promising fuel cell technology in the future and a potential alternative power source [1,2]. PEMFC has been selected to replace conventional power sources to improve air quality and to reduce green house gas emissions. It fits at best the requirements of the transportation systems. A PEM stack is normally composed of many unit cells, and these unit cells are stacked electrically in series to generate the power and voltage required by the end user [3–5]. The reliability of the entire fuel cell system depends upon the reliability of the fuel cell stack and the reliability of all the other components within the system. Every component within a fuel cell stack may affect the reliability of the stack. A failure within a single cell may require the entire fuel cell system to be shut down. In addition, failures of upstream components within the fuel cell system can also lead to premature stack damage and failure. The dynamic response and mechanical response in the fuel cell field were differen- tiated before enumerating these tests. The term ‘dynamic’ is related to the fuel cell dynamical physicochemical aspect as * Corresponding author. E-mail address: lakshmiraja2003@yahoo.com (N. Rajalakshmi). Available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he 0360-3199/$ – see front matter ª 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.03.002 international journal of hydrogen energy 34 (2009) 3833–3837