Thermal stress tolerant fuel cell assembly within a housing

A fuel cell assembly comprising:

• a plurality of multi-cell modules disposed in series and in a stacking direction;
• an external member;
• and
• an external restrainer member provided along the external member in the stacking direction, which extends between end plates provided at both sides in the cell stacking direction of the plurality of multi-cell modules,
• wherein each multi-cell module of the plurality of multi-cell modules has, a multi-cell assembly formed by stacking a plurality of cells, and a module frame having a first wall that surrounds the multi-cell assembly and that extends in the cell stacking direction of the multi-cell assembly,
• wherein the external member extends outside the plurality of multi-cell modules and in the cell stacking direction along the multi-cell modules,
• wherein the external restrainer member is provided between an internal surface of the external member and an external surface of the first wall of the module frame of the multi-cell module, and contacts the internal surface of the external member and the external surface of the first wall,
• wherein an elastic member is provided between an external surface of each multi-cell module assembly of the plurality of multi-cell modules and an internal surface of the first wall,
• the multi-cell module assembly elastically adheres to the first wall by the elastic member, and
• each multi-cell module assembly of the plurality of multi-cell modules is not restrained by the module frame in the cell stacking direction.