Design Of A Printed Circuit Board To Measure Fuel Cell's Current Density Distribution

The current density distribution measurement is a powerful technique to analyze the local conditions inside an operating polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell.There are several methods to perform this measurement which can be roughly divided into two groups.The first group is invasive in which the fuel cell has to be segmented.For each isolated segment the current density is measured and the current density distribution is generated by merging the current density of all segments.The second method is non-invasive.Here,the magnetic field generated by the current distribution is measured at adequate positions around the fuel cell and the current density distribution can be calculated by using an inverted Maxwell equation.The objective of this thesis is to design an invasive current density distribution measurement set-up based on a printed circuit board approach.The used printed circuit board measurement technique realizes the current density distribution measurement function with a shunt resistance method while assuring compatibility with the available PEMFC fuel cell system.The printed circuit board is sandwiched between the current collector and the segmented bipolar plate at the anode side of the PEMFC.The measurement set-up is programmed and controller with a National Instruments evaluation electronics system.