System-level reliability assessment of power stage in fuel cell application

Dao Zhou, Huai Wang, Frede Blaabjerg, Soren Kundsen Kor, Daniel Blom-Hansen

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    27 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    High efficient and less pollutant fuel cell stacks are emerging and strong candidates of the power solution used for mobile base stations. In the application of the backup power, the availability and reliability hold the highest priority. This paper considers the reliability metrics from the component-level to the system-level for the power stage used in a fuel cell application. It starts with an estimation of the annual accumulated damage for the key power electronic components according to the real mission profile of the fuel cell system. Then, considering the parameter variations in both the lifetime model and the stress levels, the Weibull distribution of the power semiconductors lifetime can be obtained by using Monte Carlo analysis. Afterwards, the reliability block diagram can further be adopted to evaluate the reliability of the power stage based on the estimated power semiconductor reliability. In a case study of a 5 kW fuel cell power stage, the parameter variations of the lifetime model prove that the exponential factor of the junction temperature fluctuation is the most sensitive parameter. Besides, if a 5-out-of-6 redundancy is used, it is concluded both the B10 and the B¡ system-level lifetime can be remarkably increased compared to when no redundancy is used.

    Original languageBritish English
    Title of host publicationECCE 2016 - IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, Proceedings
    PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
    ISBN (Electronic)9781509007370
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2016
    Event2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2016 - Milwaukee, United States
    Duration: 18 Sep 201622 Sep 2016

    Publication series

    NameECCE 2016 - IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, Proceedings

    Conference

    Conference2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2016
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityMilwaukee
    Period18/09/1622/09/16

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