First approach for a fault tolerant power converter interface for multi-stack PEM fuel cell generator in transportation systems

This paper presents a fault tolerant architecture for connecting PEM fuel cells inside an hybrid on-board power generation system. As a first approach, the problematic of fault tolerance for multi-stack PEM fuel cell power systems dedicated to battery-hybrid transportation systems will be considered from both sides which closely interact: the fuel cell generator in case of faulty working and the power converter interface. For the first case, the use of antiparallel by-pass diodes have proved to be a solution and are tested on series assembly of 2-cell (experimental validation) and 20-cell (simulation) PEM fuel cell stacks. For the second one, the technological choice of an interleaved multi-phase boost converter interface with backup strategies and fault-tolerance management will be detailed. One of the great issues of these converter architectures is also to give new possibilities for power management and coordination with the battery inside this hybrid transportation system.