Bayesian network supervision on fault tolerant fuel cells

In this paper, a supervisor system, able to diagnose different types of faults during the operation of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), is introduced. The diagnosis is developed by applying Bayesian networks, which qualify and quantify the cause-effect relationship among the variables of the process. The fault diagnosis is based on the online monitoring of variables easy to measure in the machine such as voltage, electric current, and temperature. The fault effects are based on experiments on a fault tolerant fuel cell, which are reproduced in a fuel cell model. A database of fault records is constructed from the fuel cell model, improving the generation time and avoiding permanent damage to the equipment. © 2006 IEEE.