Air-flow control in fuel cells using delay-based load governor and feedforward augmented dynamic inversion

The frequent and sudden increase of load in electric vehicles depletes oxygen from the fuel cell cathode, leading possibly to oxygen starvation. This paper presents the design of an air flow controller for fuel cell systems (FCS) that aims to replenish the depleted oxygen. A dynamic inversion is used as the feed-forward compensation for the disturbance effect coming from the load current change. However, the inverted dynamics have negative relative degree (improper) and not physically realizable. To make it proper, an augmentation by delay is done, with the same delay added into demand current. The current-dependent time delay introduced in the demand current gives the FCS the opportunity to prepare a sufficient air flow that can withstand the dip in oxygen excess ratio (OER). Besides, the FCS plant is linearized at various operating points, and the dynamic feedforward controller is designed at several operating points with interpolation applied for in-between values. The simulation results show a considerable improvement in the OER response where the constraint is met and the recovery time is reduced.