Robust Diagnosis of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Using Bond Graph Methodlogy – Physical and Electrical Faults Detection and Isolation

Fuel cells are currently experiencing an invigorating resurgence, both at the industrial and research levels. Diagnosis of stack performance is of importance for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) research. In this paper, a bond graph (BG) approach was used for modelling, simulation and robust diagnosis of a PEMFC. In literature, several PEMFC diagnosis methodologies were outlined in terms of efficiency and applicability. This paper described the linear fractional transformations (LFT) method to make it capable for handling the PEMFC diagnostics; an approach based on LFT-BG was developed to diagnose hydration and cells deterioration faults that may occur within a fuel cell. Simulation and experimental diagnostic testing results of a 1.2 kW Nexa fuel cell were presented and used to show the dynamic behaviour of the system variables and assessing the performance of the observer.