Abstract
This paper uses a system engineering approach based on the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) methodology to do risk analysis of the power conditioner of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). Critical components with high risk, common cause failures and effects are identified for the power conditioner system as one of the crucial parts of the PEMFCs used for backup power applications in the telecommunication industry. The results of this paper indicate that the highest risk corresponds to three failure modes including high leakage current due to the substrate interface of the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), current and electrolytic evaporation of capacitor, and thereby short circuit, loss of gate control, and increased leakage current due to gate oxide of the MOSFET. The MOSFETs, capacitors, chokes, and transformers are critical components of the power stage, which should be carefully considered in the development of the design production and implementation stage. Finally, Bayesian networks (BNs) are used to identify the most critical failure causes in the MOSFET and capacitor as they are classified from the FMEA as key items based on their Risk Priority Numbers (RPNs). As a result of BNs analyses, high temperature and overvoltage are distinguished as the most crucial failure causes. Consequently, it is recommended for designers to pay more attention to the design of MOSFETs’ failure due to high leakage current owing to substrate interface, which is caused by high temperature. The results are emphasizing design improvement in the material in order to be more resistant from high temperature.
Highlights
Global climate changes caused by conventional energy resources such as fossil fuels are one of the dominant motivations that engineers are trying to employ renewable energies
This study proposes a system engineering approach using Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) for the risk analysis of the power conditioner in a Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) system
The highest Risk Priority Numbers (RPNs) correspond to the failure modes in three components, including high leakage current due to the substrate interface of the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), current and electrolytic evaporation of capacitor, and thereby short circuit, loss of gate control, and increased leakage current due to gate oxide of the MOSFET
Summary
Global climate changes caused by conventional energy resources such as fossil fuels are one of the dominant motivations that engineers are trying to employ renewable energies. In the global sustainable development perspective, fuel cells are suitable as they provide high energy conversion efficiency, various usages being a compact and environmental friendliness system. Qualitative risk analysis is the most widely used since it is quick and straightforward to perform For this type, the potential loss is qualitatively estimated using linguistic scales such as low, medium, and high. As a matter of fact, RPN is a quantitative and qualitative risk analysis in the form of numerical ranking of risk of each potential failure mode It is constitued of the product of the three qualitative factors, S of the effect, likelihood of O of the cause, and likelihood of D of the cause in the robustness method [15]. By implementing BN the impact of each failure cause is studied, to find which failure causes have the most effects among other failure causes in the MOSFET
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