Description of gasket failure in a 7 cell PEMFC stack

Abstract

This article presents the data and the description of a fuel cell stack that failed due to gasket degradation. The fuel cell under study is a 7 cell stack. The unexpected change in several variables such as temperature, pressure and voltage indicated the possible failure of the stack. The stack was monitored over a 6 h period in which data was collected and consequently analyzed to conclude that the fuel cell stack failed due to a crossover leak on the anode inlet port located on the cathode side gasket of cell #2. This stack failure analysis revealed a series of indicators that could be used by a supervisional controller in order to initiate a shutdown procedure.