Proton exchange membrane fuel cell has received extensive attention from different industries due to its advantages such as high efficiency, high energy density, and clean emissions. However, performance at low temperature is still one of the key factors that restricted its wide commercialization. To study the internal water state of the fuel cell at low temperature and verify different cold-start strategies, a fuel cell test platform that can simulate a low-temperature environment is needed. As the power of the stack grows, the impact of the size of a membrane and the impact of the number of single cells can’t be negligible. Meanwhile, the mutual influence between adjacent single cells at low temperatures is also worth studying. However, a test platform for high-power fuel cell stack with the ability to simulate a sub-freezing temperature is currently lacking.
Thus, in this work, a 10kW-class fuel cell test platform is designed. This test platform includes a gas supply and exhaust module, a thermal management module, a control module, as well as an external humidification module, and an impedance measurement module. In addition to coolant circulation control in the thermal management module of the test platform, a refrigeration unit that can control the temperature of the gas and coolant is also specially designed to simulate a low-temperature environment. In the end, a set of verification experiments were carried out. The experimental results prove that this test platform can already meet the design requirements.