Proton exchange membrane fuel cell fault and degradation detection using a coefficient of variance method

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell is a clean energy generator as it emits water as a by-product. The fuel cell has various applications in stationary power generation and transportation. However, there is a need to improve durability for transportation applications. Fuel cell durability is limited as its performance degrades over a period due to aging, and fault conditions. In this study, we have compared fuel cell performance by using a new cell, and an aged cell. Degradation due to aging is experimented with by using a membrane that was operated for more than 2000 hours. Fuel cell performance degrades around 90% due to aging. Moreover, experimentally faults were created to study the degradation of fuel cell performance. We created three faults in the fuel cell system: Water flooding, reactant gas starvation, and high operating temperature. Fuel cell performance observed more than 30% degradation during the fault conditions. Furthermore, the coefficient of variance technique is used to detect aging, and the fault condition.

Fault Detection Methods Suitable for Automotive Applications in Proton Exchange Fuel Cells

“…CV measures the relative variability of the parameters and can be used to compare the voltage degradation of a PEMFC for a given current. The coefficients of variance for the fuel cell output voltage CV V , the current density CV CD , and the cell power CV P were calculated for aged cells and cells operating in fault conditions [48]. The experimental results showed that the CV values could differentiate the degradation performance.…”

“…Wavelet and its transform are useful to analyze the time and frequency domains of a signal [53]. Equation (8) shows a "mother" wavelet or a wavelet basis function:…”

“…Several studies investigated fuel cell degradation [5], fault detection [6], and lifetime prediction in automobiles [7]. The degradation of the fuel cell output under various fault conditions and aging was studied in [8]. Output voltage and power degradation for the expected output are modeled as ratios that can detect the fault, and their thresholds help to isolate the defect type [9].…”

“…Fuel cell degradation prediction based on the ARMA model was found accurate in long-term forecasting [47]. A fault model based on the Coefficient of Variance (CV) was developed and experimentally validated in [48]. The durability of the fuel cell was analyzed by characterizing the voltage consistency [49] and consistency [50] using CV.…”

Cascade sliding mode control implementation in photovoltaic power supply for camping-car applications

“…However, the durability of fuel cells is limited, as their performance degrades over time due to aging and fault conditions, as stated in Ref. [4]. Since the invention of photovoltaic cells, various prototypes of solar cars have been designed in universities and industrial environments [5].…”