Mechanical behaviour of a fuel cell stack under vibrating conditions linked to aircraft applications part I: Experimental

The implementation of fuel cells (FC) in transportation systems, as airplanes, requires some better understanding and mastering of their mechanical behaviours in vibrating environments. To this end, a FC stack is tested on a vibrating platform and characterised on the three geometric axes of the equipment. The impacts over the stack assembly of sine excitations with different frequencies and magnitudes are estimated using various accelerometers placed on different locations of the FC surface. Leak checks are also performed in order to verify that no malfunctions occur in the stack. In this first part, some descriptions concerning the test facilities and the experimental setup are given, as well as some information about the mechanical test procedure applied. Some frequency - acceleration diagrams resulting from the experiments are shown and analysed. Finally, some assessments concerning the stack behaviour in vibrating conditions are made. (C) 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved