Model Predictive Control of Hydrogen Pressure of Multi-Stack Fuel Cell System

Abstract

To control and stabilize the hydrogen pressure in a multi-stack fuel cell system, a dynamic simulation model of a multi-stack fuel cell hydrogen system structure containing supply and exhaust common rail is built based on Matlab/Simulink. In the control method, the idea of local linearization was adopted. Local linearization models of the system around different steady-state operating points were built and model predictive controller for each interval was designed. This multi-point linearized control model can improve the solution speed and reduce the impact caused by the mismatch problem. The results show that under step operating condition, the deviation of the reactor inlet pressure can be reduced by 22.5%, and the adjustment time can be reduced from 31 to 22 seconds. Under C-WTVC operating condition, power consumption of the blower in the hydrogen system is reduced by 13.6% compared with that of the conventional PID. It is concluded that the controller designed in this paper is better than the traditional PID controller and is more suitable for the hydrogen system of the multi-stack fuel cell.