Research on the adaptability of energy management to thermal management of PEMFCs

Abstract

The stable output of power and the effective control of stack temperature play a very important role in the durability and stability of fuel cell hybrid vehicles. In actual working conditions, energy management of power system and thermal management of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) need to be coordinated with each other to jointly ensure the efficient and stable operation of vehicles, however, most of the research in these two directions is independent. In response to the research gaps mentioned above, the concept of adaptability has been proposed for the first time with the aim of combining these two systems for research. This paper takes the fuel cell hybrid vehicle as the research object and establishes the energy management system and thermal management system model based on Matlab/Simulink software. In order to investigate the adaptability of energy management strategies to the temperature control system, two representative types of rule-based and optimization-based energy management strategies (power-following strategy, PFS, and adaptive equivalent hydrogen consumption minimization strategy, A-EHMS) are designed to be numerically simulated in the driving cycle condition of the UDDS, and then combined with the temperature control system of the fuel cell to comparatively analyze the above two types of energy management strategies from the perspectives of power allocation and the impact on the thermal management system. The results show that the PFS provides better protection for the battery under the same operating conditions. And from the perspective of fuel economy and adaptability to the temperature control system, the fuel consumption of A-EHMS is reduced by 12.5% and the adaptability to the temperature control system is improved by about 13.5% compared to PFS.