M. Tech. (Engineering, Electrical, Department Applied Electronics and Electronic Communication, Faculty of Engineering and Technology) -- Vaal University of Technology / This dissertation presents the design and development of a remote monitoring system
(RMS) for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) to facilitate their efficient
operation. The RMS consists of a data acquisition system built around the PIC 16F874
microcontroller that communicates with a personal computer (PC) by use of the RS232
serial communication standard, using a simple wired connection between the two. The
design also consists of a human machine interface (HMI) developed in Visual Basic 6.0
to provide a platform for display of the monitored parameters in real time.
The first objective was to establish performance variables and past studies on PEM fuel
cells revealed that variables that affect the system's performance include: fuel and
oxidant input pressure and mass flow rates as well as operation temperature and stack
hydration.
The next objective was to design and develop a data acquisition system (DAS) that
could accurately measure the performance variables and convey the data to a PC. This
consisted of sensors whose outputs were input into two microcontrollers that were
programmed to process the data received and transfer it to the PC. A HMI was
developed that provided graphical display of the data as well as options for storage and
reviewing the data.
The developed system was then tested on a 150Watt PEM fuel cell stack and the data
acquisition system was found to reliably capture the fuel cell variables. The HMI
provided a real-time display of the data, with alarms indicating when set minimums
were exceeded and all data acquired was saved as a Microsoft Excel file. Some
recommendations for improved system performance are suggested. / Vaal University of Technology -- National Research Foundations
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:vut/oai:digiresearch.vut.ac.za:10352/293 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Komweru, Laetitia |
| Contributors | Pienaar, H. C. v Z. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xv,104 leaves: illustrations |
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