An energy-circuit-based fuel cell air compressor system model reconstruction and predictive control approach

Fuel cell air compressor is a key enabler of hydrogen-based renewable energy systems as it improves air supply efficiency and stability. This paper first simplifies the gas flow equations, compares ideal gas path elements with circuit elements, and converts the air compressor system transfer function into an interpretable control-oriented energy-circuit-based model, and derives the transfer matrix relating flow and pressure at any position to the initial position using Laplace transforms. The reconstructed model then converts the complex frequency domain system transfer functions into the time-domain form, generating a control-oriented energy-circuit-based model for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell air compressor system to describe the dynamical and dimensional features. Under the current step condition, the energy-circuit-based air compressor system model achieves less than 5 % mean relative error (MRE) in intake manifold pressure and flow. The model-based pressure distribution has a root-mean-squared error (RMSE) and an MRE of 26.5 Pa and 0.01246 % compared to finite element results. Additionally, the energy-circuit-based air compressor system model with surge constraints has been used to develop the model predictive controller which has been further tested under typical simulation conditions. The proposed control strategy demonstrates enhanced transient response and enables the determination of pressure distribution along the pipeline.