Detection of Leakages by Current Density Measurements

In order to increase the reliability of fuel cells an on-line diagnostic method for detection of operation malfunctions as well as the early detection of failures in the fuel cells is necessary. For this purpose, locally resolved current density measurements are an important tool, but the main problem of all on-line analytic tools is the interpretation of the data related to the detection of malfunctions or failures. Therefore, the methodology of locally resolved measurement needs to be further developed by testing fuel cells with defined malfunctions and failures. In this way, an understanding of the on-line analytic measurement results with respect of failures can be developed. In this paper the results of current density measurements performed in a fuel cell with a leakage is discussed