Abstract
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are relevant systems for power generation. However, they suffer from a lack of reliability, mainly due to their structural complexity. Indeed, their operation involves electrochemical, thermal, and electrical phenomena that imply a strong coupling, making it harder to maintain nominal operation. This complexity causes several issues for the design of appropriate control, diagnosis, or fault-tolerant control strategies. It is therefore mandatory to understand the fuel cell structure for a relevant design of these kinds of strategies. This paper proposes a fuel cell fault structural analysis approach that leads to the proposition of a structural graph. This graph will then be used to highlight the interactions between the control variables and the functionalities of a fuel cell, and therefore to emphasize how changing a parameter to mitigate a fault can influence the fuel cell state and eventually cause another fault. The final aim of this work is to allow an easier implementation of an efficient and fault-tolerant control strategy on the basis of the proposed graphical representation.
Highlights
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are efficient and clean energy supply systems
The structural analysis gives a graphical representation of all PEMFC variables that have an influence on the fuel cell operating conditions
The analysis allows describing the system functionalities and their variables. It allows the graphical representation of the fuel cell strong coupling and provides information about relevant variables for the design of a diagnosis tool for flooding and membrane drying out
Summary
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are efficient and clean energy supply systems. They are subject to the occurrence of various faults, which decreases their reliability. Faults are inordinate phenomena that degrade a system’s performance more or less rapidly and substantially [1]. Their occurrence can be attributed to several factors (exogenous and endogenous). Both exogenous factors, such as gas purity or demanding load profile, and endogenous factors, such as poor internal design or natural aging, can lead to fault occurrence and, to fuel cell damage. PEMFCs are nonlinear, multivariate, and strongly coupled systems, which complicates their ability to be maintained under normal operation. An exhaustive analysis of the variables’ effects and interactions inside the system is a major issue to be considered to set an efficient fault-tolerant control (FTC) strategy
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