Fuel Cell Fault Simulation and Detection for On Board Diagnostics using Real-Time Digital Twins 2024-37-0014

The modern automotive industry is facing challenges of ever-increasing complexity in the electrified powertrain era. On-board diagnostic (OBD) systems must be thoroughly validated and calibrated through many iterations to function effectively and meet the regulation standards. Their development and design process are more complex when prototype hardware is not available and therefore virtual testing is a prominent solution, including Software-in-the-loop (SiL) and Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations. Virtual prototype testing relying on real-time simulation models is necessary to design and test new era’s OBD systems quickly and in scale. The new fuel cell powertrain involves new and preciously unexplored fail modes. To make the system robust, simulations are required to be carried out to identify different fails. Thus, it is imminent to build simulation models which can reliably reproduce failures of components like the compressor, recirculation pump, humidifier or cooling systems. As the OBD regulations become more stringent and advanced, it is difficult to keep pace with it and perform comprehensive testing in real world environment. In such scenarios, SiL and HIL testing becomes more prevalent. SiL testing provides a quick way for controls engineers to develop new strategies at system level to adhere to new OBD regulations. On the other hand, simulating high fidelity physics based Real Time plant model on HIL systems, allows the engineers to perform Fault insertions tests on the software and leave the lab environment with a certain degree of guarantee that the software would fare well in real world conditions. This paper will present the necessary fuel cell model developments to reproduce relevant failure modes which in turn can be detected by a controls model developed in Simulink. Then the viability of this approach will be demonstrated by showing SiL and HIL test results.