A System-Level Modeling of PEMFC Considering Degradation Aspect towards a Diagnosis Process

Abstract

This paper proposes a modular modeling towards a health system integration of fuel cells by considering not only the dynamics of the gases but also fault models that affect the PEMFC performances. The main goal is to simulate the faulty state in order to overcome data scarcity, since running a fuel cell to generate a database under faulty conditions is a costly process in time and resources. The degradation processes detailed in this paper allow to introduce a classification of faults that can occur, giving a better understanding of the performance losses necessary to simulate them. The faults that are detailed and modeled are the flooding, drying and aging processes. This modeling is based on a system approach, so it runs faster than real-time degradation tests, allowing the training and validation of online supervisors, such as the energy management strategy (EMS) method or diagnosis. The faults are reproduced according to the study requirements to be a very effective support tool to help design engineers to include faulty conditions in early design stages toward a diagnosis process and health-conscious energy management strategies.