Resistive Spot in a Fuel Cell Stack: Exact Solutions

Abstract

We report the analytical solution to a problem of voltage and current distribution in a two-cell stack with the small amplitude resistive spot in one of the cells. Voltage disturbance in the defective cell increases almost linearly with the characteristic spot radius. The general expression for voltage loss due to a spot in an N-cell stack is obtained; it is stack current density times peak spot resistivity times square of the characteristic spot radius. Based on the solutions derived, a method for spot detection in a stack is discussed.