In-Situ Fatigue Lifetime Modeling of a Reinforced Membrane by Projecting Critical Accumulated Plastic Dissipation Energy from Pressure Differential-Accelerated Mechanical Stress Tests
Authors: Mazrouei Sebdani Mohsen , Baroody Heather , Kjeang Erik 
Published: February 2024

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) have become increasingly appealing over internal combustion engines because of their high efficiency, low operating temperature, and zero CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, the transportation sector necessitates high durability and reliability, which may be difficult to predict for emerging technologies. A crucial aspect is the ability of the thin membranes that conduct ions in PEFCs to endure the chemical and mechanical stresses that arise during dynamic operations. For mechanical fatigue, temperature and relative humidity (RH) fluctuations induce dynamic stresses that lead to the formation and propagation of microcracks in the membrane. As the membrane is confined by other components in the membrane-electrode assembly (MEA), changes in temperature and humidity can generate thermal and swelling strains in the membrane, leading to dynamic and residual stresses [1].

The US Department of Energy sets a passing criterion of 20,000 RH cycles for mechanical fatigue assessment. However, many modern reinforced membranes have already passed this threshold without failing [2]. Therefore, Ref [3] introduced a pressure differential between the cathode and anode sides of the membrane at 80°C to speed up the testing. In this research, the pressure differential-accelerated mechanical stress test (ΔP-AMST) method was applied to a reinforced membrane at two different temperatures and with four times faster humidity cycles in a wider range of ΔPs. This objective is to project the mechanical fatigue lifetime from the ΔP-AMST to the membrane under its in-situ conditions by using the critical accumulated plastic dissipation energy (CAPDE) in ΔP-AMSTs and the plastic dissipation energy (PDE) during a single cycle of humidity that the membrane experiences under complete fuel cell settings. The first step involves performing a series of ∆P-AMST, and in the second step, a finite element model (FEM) for ∆P-AMST based on the developed constitutive model for the tensile tests that covers temperature, humidity, and swelling strain impacts is built, and therefore its S-N curve is extracted. Next, a FEM model for a complete fuel cell is created, and the mechanical fatigue life is estimated by dividing the CAPDE in ∆P-AMST by the PDE in one cycle of the in-situ modeled membrane by considering amplitude stress as a link between the full fuel cell model and ∆P-AMST, as illustrated in Figure 1 and verified by previous studies [4,5]. In the final step, we will also discuss opportunities to integrate the present mechanical fatigue model with a chemical degradation module to simulate its impacts on fatigue lifetime. This integration includes the two main effects of chemical degradation, which are reflected in the thickness of the reinforced membrane [6] and its updated CAPDE [7].

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge AVL Fuel Cell Canada and Mitacs for supporting this project. The authors also thank Roger Penn and Amy Nelson for technical advice.

References

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[2] Rodgers MP, Bonville LJ, Mukundan R, Borup RL, Ahluwalia R, Beattie P, et al. Perfluorinated sulfonic acid membrane and membrane electrode assembly degradation correlating accelerated stress testing and lifetime testing. ECS Trans 2013;58:129.

[3] Alavijeh AS, Bhattacharya S, Thomas O, Chuy C, Kjeang E. A rapid mechanical durability test for reinforced fuel cell membranes. J Power Sources Adv 2020;2:100010.

[4] Chen J, Goshtasbi A, Soleymani AP, Ricketts M, Waldecker J, Xu C, et al. Effects of cycle duration and test hardware in relative humidity cycling of a polymer electrolyte membrane. J Power Sources 2020;476:228576.

[5] Hasan M, Chen J, Waldecker JR, Santare MH. Predicting fatigue lifetimes of a reinforced membrane in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell using plastic energy. J Power Sources 2022;539:231597.

[6] Liu H, Chen J, Hissel D, Hou M, Shao Z. A multi-scale hybrid degradation index for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. J Power Sources 2019;437:226916.

[7] Sun X, Shi S, Fu Y, Chen J, Lin Q, Hu J, et al. Embrittlement induced fracture behavior and mechanisms of perfluorosulfonic-acid membranes after chemical degradation. J Power Sources 2020;453:227893.

Figure 1