The neural networks based modeling of a polybenzimidazole-based polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell: Effect of temperature

Neural network models represent an important tool of Artificial Intelligence for fuel cell researchers in order to help them to elucidate the processes within the cells, by allowing optimization of materials, cells, stacks, and systems and support control systems. In this work three types of neural networks, that have as common characteristic the supervised learning control (Multilayer Perceptron, Generalized Feedforward Network and Jordan and Elman Network), have been designed to model the performance of a polybenzimidazole-polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells operating upon a temperature range of 100-175 degrees C. The influence of temperature of two periods was studied: the temperature in the conditioning period and temperature when the fuel cell was operating. Three inputs variables: the conditioning temperature, the operating temperature and current density were taken into account in order to evaluate their influence upon the potential, the cathode resistance anti the ohmic resistance. The Multilayer Perceptron model provides good predictions for different values of operating temperatures and potential and, hence, it is the best choice among the study models, recommended to investigate the influence of process variables of PEMFCs. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.