A holistic physics-based observer for online flooding and ECSA loss detection in FCEV

Abstract

This paper addresses the critical need for improving fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) reliability to promote their commercialization. A physics-based observer that combines an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) with a Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT) has been employed to address two major failure modes in FCEV stacks: flooding and reduction of Electrochemical Active Surface Area (ECSA). Furthermore, the observer estimates the hidden states of a standard automotive airpath system to enable state-feedback control. Therefore, the proposed observer is a novel approach which holistically tackles three coupled problems (i.e., flooding, ECSA loss, and airpath state estimation) which are typically addressed individually. Additionally, the observer is computationally affordable and relies solely on typical vehicle sensors. The observer performance has been validated through simulations, testing various dynamic scenarios in the presence of flooding, ECSA loss failures, and sensors uncertainty. The estimation errors have been confined within a 3% error band for all test cases while the health indicators coherently responded in the presence of faults.