Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering

Research

Degradation analysis and health monitoring projects

Project 2 - Knowledge based diagnostics

This research project is focussed on enhancing Fuel Cell lifetime performance through effective health management and decision support. Focussing on automotive applications, where durability criteria are well defined Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles must perform comparably to battery electric vehicles and (perhaps more importantly) internal combustion vehicles, to gain popular acceptance and increase use.  In order to extend useful lifetime a number of approaches may be taken, including improved cell design, improved component and material durability, and intelligent control systems. The latter is the remit of this research work; developing a control and monitoring strategy to manage system health, and avoid component degradation.  Direction has looked at using a knowledge based approach, rather than a data or model based approach, using a fuzzy-logic system to determine degradation occurrence.  This is then coupled with a decision support decision which is currently  under development.