Fuel Cell Sensor Cross-Check Using Shared Supply Signals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle fuel cell systems face challenges in maintaining high availability and uptime due to the need for redundant sensors for plausibility checks, which increases complexity and costs.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle fuel cell system assembly comprising two fuel cell systems with shared coolant, air, or fuel supplies, allowing for a sensor plausibility check and using valid sensor values to ensure operation even if a sensor fails the check.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If redundant sensors are provided for sensor plausibility checks within the same fuel cell system, then sensor reliability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the plausibility check function across multiple fuel cell systems by comparing sensor values from different systems. Instead of implementing redundant sensors within a single system, the invention combines sensor data from multiple independent fuel cell systems to perform cross-validation, thereby maintaining reliability while reducing device complexity and sensor quantity.
2Reliability
If redundant sensors are provided for sensor plausibility checks, then sensor reliability is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention combines the sensor resources across multiple fuel cell systems to perform plausibility checks. By merging the functionality of redundant sensors into a shared resource pool that serves multiple systems, the manufacturing cost is reduced while maintaining the reliability benefits of having backup sensor readings for comparison.
3Reliability
If two or more fuel cell systems share a common supply of coolant, air, or fuel, then system availability is improved, but the risk of common failure modes increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where sensor values from multiple fuel cell systems are continuously monitored and compared. When a sensor value deviates from expected ranges or shows inconsistency with other systems, the system can detect and respond to potential failures, allowing for proactive maintenance or system isolation before common failure modes affect the entire assembly.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle fuel cell system assembly comprising: a first fuel cell system comprising a first sensor and a first control unit adapted to control the first fuel cell system based on a value of the first sensor, a second fuel cell system comprising a second sensor and a second control unit adapted to control the second fuel cell system based on a value of the second sensor, and a common supply of coolant, air or fuel to the first and second fuel cell systems, wherein the vehicle fuel cell system assembly is configured to perform a sensor plausibility check of the first sensor and the second sensor and use a value of a sensor that has passed the plausibility check instead of a value of a sensor that has not passed the plausibility check.