Feedforward-decoupled closed-loop fuzzy proportion-integral-derivative control of air supply system of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Effective control strategies of air supply system are the key to guaranteeing reliability and efficiency of the operation of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system. The novelty of this article is to design a fuzzy proportion-integral-derivative (PID) controller for the PEMFC air supply system combining the feedforward decoupled method. Aiming at strong coupling of parameters in the air supply system, we have proposed a feedforward decoupled controller to achieve independent control of air flow and pressure, so that the entire system can get better control effect. Aiming at time-varying, hysteresis, and randomness of interference in the air supply system, we have designed a fuzzy-PID controller based on the decoupled controller to achieve better dynamic response and stability, so that the possibility of air starvation can be reduced and the stack durability can be improved. The step load test reveals that the time to reach steady state, the overshoot, and the steady-state error are much smaller under the decoupled fuzzy-PID control compared that under the decoupled PID control. The New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) test further verifies that the system with the decoupled fuzzy-PID controller can quickly follow the variable load demand without system response oscillation and steady-state error.