Fault detection and identification for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell
Résumé
Reliability and durability are key considerations to successfully deploy Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs). So, effective tools are required to control their mass-production, the quality of the stacks and their diagnosis for on-site maintenance (stationary) or for on-board (transportation) applications. Therefore, techniques sensitive to localized phenomena are of major interest in the development of PEMFC diagnosis. In perspective, local electrochemical measurement associating current density distribution and local Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) may support stack-level degradation analyses as well as effective control to mitigate the consequences of degradation due to load cycles (electrochemical, thermal, mechanical and humidity effects) or faults. The key here is to extract information about local current density distribution and impedance, over either a cell or a stack. This strategy requires the complementary development of segmented cells as well as magnetic field techniques, to implement local measurement respectively over MEA surface and onto stack during real-life operation. This challenge is tackled by using tailored defective MEAs or thanks to specific operating conditions (flooding, drying, ...) to characterize how local and overall performances of the MEA are affected and to identify the signatures of the various anomalies.