Title: A PEM fuel cell temperature controller design using a thermal equivalent circuit model

Authors: Woonki Na; Bei Gou

Addresses: ECE Department, Bradley University, 1501 W. Bradley Ave., Peoria, IL, USA. ' ECE Department, North Dakota State University, 1411 Centennial Blvd., Fargo, ND, USA

Abstract: In order to control a temperature in the fuel cell system, a thermal equivalent circuit model for PEM fuel cells and its control algorithms are presented. By defining temperature as a state, the energy balance model can be established so that feedback control algorithm can be directly employed. The details of the design of the thermal equivalent circuit model and its control scheme are provided in the paper. The proposed thermal equivalent circuit model and its control design were analysed through Bode plots. Based on the Bode plot results, the proposed thermal circuit model for PEM fuel cells is applied to design an appropriate temperature controller.

Keywords: thermal equivalent circuits; polymer electrolyte membrane; PEM fuel cells; PEMFCs; loop gain; lag compensator; temperature control; controller design; energy balance modelling; feedback control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEC.2012.048047

International Journal of Power and Energy Conversion, 2012 Vol.3 No.3/4, pp.143 - 156

Accepted: 07 Sep 2011
Published online: 07 Aug 2014 *

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