A method and system for detecting flooding of single cells of a fuel cell stack using pattern recognition techniques

摘要

A method of determining whether flow channels of a fuel cell in a fuel cell stack are flooded indicating cell instability, the method comprising: supplying pulses of cathode reactant gas flow to cathode flow channels in the fuel cell stack; Data points of the voltage of each fuel cell in the fuel cell stack are collected in response to the pulse of the cathode reactant gas flow for a predetermined period of time; a pattern recognition algorithm is used to determine whether the collected data points indicate a voltage signature for each fuel cell indicating flooded cathode flow channels or non-flooded cathode flow channels; and the number of times the cathode airflow pulses are delivered is increased when the pattern recognition algorithm determines that one or more of the cells has flooded cathode flow channels.