Received: 7 April 2019 Revised: 5 May 2019 Accepted: 6 May 2019

DOI: 10.1002/est2.61

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Modeling and energy management of a photovoltaic-fuel

cell-battery hybrid electric vehicle

Zhiyu Huang1 | Caizhi Zhang1 | Tao Zeng1 | Chen Lv2 | Siew H. Chan2

1
College of Automotive Engineering, The
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical
Abstract
Transmissions, Chongqing Automotive Automobile power systems are increasingly in need of renewable and clean energy
Collaborative Innovation Centre, Chongqing sources such as solar energy and fuel cells in the context of global warming. This
University, Chongqing, China
2 article investigates the feasibility of a photovoltaic-fuel cell-battery hybrid electric
School of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, Nanyang Technological vehicle (PVFCHEV) via a model-based approach and delivers two major original
University, Singapore, Singapore contributions. First, a completed PVFCHEV system, which consists of the electric

Correspondence
Caizhi Zhang, College of Automotive
Engineering; The State Key Laboratory of
Mechanical Transmissions, Chongqing
Automotive Collaborative Innovation
Centre; Chongqing University; Chongqing
400044, China.
Email: czzhang@cqu.edu.cn
Chen Lv, School of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang
Technological University; 50 Nanyang
Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore.
Email: lyuchen@ntu.edu.sg
power system, the control system, and the vehicle powertrain system, is modeled
in detail in Matlab/Simulink environment. Second, a fuzzy logic control based
energy management strategy (EMS) is developed, aiming to maximize solar energy
utilization under the fast-changing power demand, the variance of solar energy,
and different levels of battery state-of-charge. The simulation results of the func-
tional test, including idling, accelerating, and cruising at different solar radiations
and battery states, reveal that the designed vehicular power system and the EMS
work reasonably well. Then, with the simulation of a particular driving cycle test in
three typical scenarios (high, low, and zero solar radiances with different battery
SOC), the power system proves to work effectively and adaptively in different situ-
ations under the regulation of the EMS and demonstrates better fuel economy than

Funding information
using a widely-adopted power-following control strategy.
Chongqing University; National Key
Research and Development Program, Grant/ KEYWORDS
Award Numbers: 2018YFB0105703, fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle, fuzzy logical energy management, photovoltaic power
2018YFB0105402; National Nature Science
Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number:
51806024; Chongqing Research Program of
Foundation and Advanced Technology,
Grant/Award Number: cstc2017jcyjAX0276;
Venture & Innovation Support Program for
Chongqing Overseas Returnees;
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities, Grant/Award Numbers:
2018CDXYTW0031, 244005202014

1 | INTRODUCTION emissions.1 As a rapidly growing technology, a hydrogen fuel

The ever-stricter restrictions on gas emissions and the concerns
on environmental sustainability lead to high interest in electric
vehicles (EVs) because of their high efficiencies and low
cell is pollutant-free and could be a promising source to power
vehicles along with the fast refueling technology.2 Proton
exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with high efficiency,
fast response rate and good low-temperature response property3
has been used in a fuel cell bus4 or as a fuel cell range extender

Energy Storage. 2019;1:e61. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/est2 © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 of 14
https://doi.org/10.1002/est2.61
2 of 14
in a battery EV.5 In addition, photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of
the most important renewable energy sources since it is free and
readily available. A fuel cell (FC) EV with rooftop PV panels as
an auxiliary power source could reduce nearly 40% of daily
hydrogen consumption.6 Moreover, a hybrid electric vehicle
(HEV) integrating PV panels, FC, and an auxiliary battery has
both higher energy and exergy efficiencies than that without PV
panels.7 Therefore, such a novel vehicular power system could
be an ideal propulsion system of clean vehicles in the near future
regarding technology and environmental protection.8
Although many published works have studied energy
systems combining of the FC, battery, and PV solar cells,
they are mostly developed for stationary and residential
power demand, and few of them have discussed their use in
vehicles. In addition, the limited amount of works concerning
the PV-FC-battery hybrid electric vehicle (PVFCHEV)
merely tried to validate the feasibility of it by cost and energy
efficiency analysis or modeling the system in a very simpli-
fied way,9 which is far behind the requirements of practical
use. Chowdhury et al. analyzed the electrical system of an
HEV's powertrain comprising a FC, battery and PV panel.9
Nevertheless, it only focused on the performances of individ-
ual components in the system, lacking the modeling and
development of an energy management system on vehicle
level. Sharaf et al. presented a structure of a hybrid PV-FC
diesel-battery powered electric vehicle,10 yet the modeling of
the power system is kind of rudimentary. Mokrani et al. pro-
posed an integrated PV-FC-battery system for 3 kW EV trac-
tion system.11 However, the vehicle dynamics system and
electrical devices are modeled in a very simplified way. More-
over, the energy management strategy (EMS) is not effective
enough and thereby needs to be further explored.
EMS, which regulates the power distribution between the
power sources, is crucial for HEVs to improve fuel economy
and reduce emission. The expected functions of the EMS of a
PVFCHEV are different from a normal HEV. In a PVFCHEV,
the power sources should work integrally according to solar radi-
ation to utilize solar energy as much as possible. For example,
when solar power is high, the battery should assume more work-
ing load to reserve more capacity for storing solar energy when
the vehicle is idle. In addition, aside from the normal functions
of the EMS of a FC EV, the EMS of a PVFCHEV should main-
tain the state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery to a reasonable
level, in order to protect the battery, to sustain the vehicle's
dynamic property, and more importantly to make the most use
of solar energy.
Ezzat and Dincer have proposed the structure of a
PVFCHEV and thoroughly analyzed the effects of integrating
PV arrays to the FC power system on vehicle energy and
exergy efficiencies.7 However, there remains some unsolved
problems of modeling and simulating the power electrical sys-
tem derived from that structure to investigate the feasibility of
HUANG ET AL.
implementing such a vehicular power system in the real world.
In addition, an efficient EMS for PVFCHEV is highly in need.
Therefore, the objectives of this study are to establish a detailed
model of a complete PVFCHEV system including the electrical
components, the control system, and vehicle powertrain system,
and to design an EMS for making the most use of solar energy.
In light of the objectives mentioned above, this article delivers
two major original contributions. First, a detailed Simulink physi-
cal model of a 6 kW class lightweight PVFCHEV is established
using the verified Simscape components. The model of
PVFCHEV system includes the complete electrical system, the
control system, and the vehicle dynamics system. This detailed
model helps to validate the feasibility of the structure of
PVFCHEV in a credible and precise way. Second, an EMS for
PVFCHEV is developed using a fuzzy logic control (FLC) strat-
egy. A signal port for solar power is added compared to a FC EV
and the fuzzy reasoning rules are specifically designed for maxi-
mizing the utilization of solar energy. Finally, the model and the
EMS are validated by simulations of functional and driving cycle
tests under the fast-changing driving power demand, the variance
of solar power, and the different states of the battery.
2 | SYSTEM DESCRIPTION AND
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
2.1 | System description
Figure 1 shows the structure of the PVFCHEV system. It con-
sists of a rooftop PV array, a PEMFC stack, a high-pressure
hydrogen tank, a lithium battery as a secondary power source,
a supervisor controller and an electric motor with motor drive.
The PV array is connected to a maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) converter to guarantee maximum output
power. Excessive solar energy could be stored in the battery
when the vehicle stops or decelerates.
The PEMFC stack acts as the main power source and pro-
vides power to the electric motor. The excessive electricity
from the FC is utilized to charge the battery. A flowrate regula-
tor reduces the pressure of the hydrogen flow from the tank
and regulates its flow rate to jointly adjust the FC power.
The Li-ion battery with high power density and fast
dynamic response could compensate for the transient output
power and absorb the excess energy from regenerative brak-
ing. A permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) is
selected as the electric motor because of its high operation
efficiency and reliability. A supervisor controller monitors
the working status of the system including the power of PV
array, battery SOC, and demand power, to determine the
power of the FC and the torque of the motor.
HUANG ET AL. 3 of 14

FIGURE 1 The structure of a PV-FC-battery HEV. HEV, hybrid electric vehicle; MPPT, maximum power point tracking; PEM, proton
exchange membrane; PMSM, permanent magnet synchronous machine; PV-FC, photovoltaic-fuel cell

FIGURE 2 The scheme of the fuzzy logic based energy management strategy. PV, photovoltaic; PVFCHEV, photovoltaic-fuel cell-battery
hybrid electric vehicle; SOC, state-of-charge

2.2 | Energy management strategy conditions such as the intermittent and stochastic characteris-
tics of solar energy.
The EMS is developed based on a FLC strategy. Since the
PVFCHEV is a highly nonlinear system, a fuzzy logic
method is suitable for use because it is flexible and can work
2.2.1 | Input and output parameters
well without precise mathematical models. Moreover, fuzzy
logic can incorporate the expert experience into the control The fuzzy logic controller treats the demand power of the
strategy, which helps to deal with the complex environmental electric motor, the output power of the PV array and SOC of
4 of 14
the battery as three input parameters, and the output parame-
ter is the reference power of the FC, as shown in Figure 2.
The pedal position (ie, accelerator and brake) determines the
demand torque of the motor, and then the demand power is
obtained taking the demand torque and motor speed. The FC
power is set as the primary control variable of the controller,
which determines the powers of the FC and the battery.
The fuzzy field scopes of the PV output power, battery
SOC, motor demand power, and FC power are set as [0, 1],
and they are denoted as θ(PPV), θ(SOC), θ(Pdemand), and
θ(PFC), respectively. The fuzzy set for θ(PPV) is divided into
LOW, MIDDLE, and HIGH, which implies the intensity of
solar radiation. The fuzzy set for θ(SOC) is also divided into
LOW, MIDDLE, and HIGH, representing the ratio of the
remaining capacity of the battery to its maximum capacity.
The fuzzy set for θ(Pdemand) is classified as very small (VS),
small (S), middle (M), large (L) and very large (VL), and the
fuzzy set for θ(PFC) are ZE (zero), VS, S, M, L, VL, indicat-
ing the power demand from small to large levels.
The membership functions (MFs) of these parameters are
derived based on the expert experience from multiple
sources12-14 and shown in Figure 3. Note that the gap between
ZE and VS of θ(PFC) in Figure 3D is the low-efficiency area of
the FC system (including humidifier, cooling fan, and other
accessories), and thus the FC should not work at this range.
F I G U R E 3 The membership functions of the input and output parameters: A, input parameter θ(PPV); B, input parameter θ(SOC); C, input
parameter θ(Pdemand); and D, output parameter θ(PFC)
HUANG ET AL.
The membership function VL of θ(PFC) is specifically set for
recharging the battery when necessary.
2.2.2 | Fuzzy reasoning rules
The fuzzy reasoning rules are derived from practical experi-
ence regarding the driving conditions, SOC of battery and
solar radiations. The principles of the reasoning rules are
elucidated below.
First, solar energy should be utilized as much as possible. It
requires that the SOC of the battery not be too high, in order to
reserve a certain amount of capacity for storing solar energy.
Thus, when the solar radiation is intense, the battery needs to
work as the main power source to keep its SOC in a relatively
low range for solar charging when the vehicle stops or parks.
Second, the dynamic performance of the vehicle should
be guaranteed, which requires the SOC of the battery not too
low, to be capable of supplementing the additional power
demand. Therefore, when the battery SOC is low, the FC
should generate excess power to charge the battery to
recover battery SOC to a reasonable level.
Third, the battery SOC should be kept between 30% and
80%. This procedure avoids deep discharging and overcharging,
which could result in the reduction of battery lifespan.14 Besides,
the charging and discharging rates of the battery should be
HUANG ET AL. 5 of 14

restricted. Thus, when the power demand is high, the FC begins
to work to lower the discharging current of the battery.
The fuzzy reasoning rules are given in Table 1. The fuzzy
logic controller is developed using MATLAB FLC toolbox,
in which the fuzzy reasoning process uses Mamdani Infer-
ence Method and the defuzzification process uses a weighted
mean (centroid) method.
a physical modeling environment in which different pre-
defined components are interconnected for modeling, simu-
lating, and analyzing electromechanical systems.15 Using this
approach, the block diagrams can directly reflect the structure
of the system, and system-level equations can be automati-
cally derived. In this study, the model PVFCHEV system
comprises three main subsystems: electrical system, energy
management system, and vehicle dynamics system.

3 | SYSTEM MODELING
3.1 | Electrical system
This article establishes a model of PVFCHEV system in The electrical system consists of four main parts: a PV array
Matlab/Simulink using SimPowerSystems package. It creates with MPPT converter, a Li-ion battery, a PEMFC with Boost
converter, and a motor. The MPPT converter transforms the
TABLE 1 Fuzzy reasoning rules
low voltage from the PV array to a high voltage required by
θ(Pdemand) the DC bus while providing maximum power point tracking
for solar panels. The Boost type converter connected to
θ(SOC) θ(PPV) VS S M L VL
PEMFC regulates the output power of the FC through current
LOW LOW VS M L L VL regulation via PID control technique. A battery is connected to
LOW MIDDLE VS S M L VL the DC bus to provide supplemental power for starting the sys-
LOW HIGH VS S M M L tem, and to recover SOC from regenerative braking and excess
MIDDLE LOW ZE VS S M L energy from FC. Figure 4 shows the block diagram of the elec-
MIDDLE MIDDLE ZE VS S M M trical system.
MIDDLE HIGH ZE ZE VS S M
HIGH LOW ZE ZE VS VS S 3.1.1 | PV array and MPPT converter
HIGH MIDDLE ZE ZE ZE VS S The model of PV array is based on PV array block embedded
HIGH HIGH ZE ZE ZE ZE VS in Simulink using an equivalent circuit.16 The mathematical
Abbreviations: L, large; M, middle; S, small; VL, very large; VS, very small; models are shown in the following Equations.17 The solar cell
ZE, zero. current I is calculated as:

FIGURE 4 The electrical system of a PV-FC-battery HEV. HEV, hybrid electric vehicle; PV-FC, photovoltaic-fuel cell
6 of 14 HUANG ET AL.


 
qðV + IRS Þ "
3

#
I = I L − I 0 exp −1 ð1Þ T −qEg 1 1
nkT I 0 = I 0ðref Þ exp − ð3Þ
T ref nk T T ref
where Vis the cell voltage, I0 is diode saturation current, T
is cell temperature (K), q is the charge of an electron, n is
diode factor value, and k is Boltzmann's constant. The cur- Where Eg is the bandgap voltage and I0(ref ) is the satura-
rent source IL in Equation (1) is defined as: tion current at standard condition.
The MPPT converter continuously maintains the operat-

 ing point of the PV panel at the maximum power point in
G
I L = I SC 1 + αt ðT −T ref Þ ð2Þ that irradiation and temperature. The Perturb and Observe
Gref
(P&O) algorithm based MPPT technique is adopted in the
converter.18
where Gref is the nominal solar irradiance and assumed to
The roof area of a typical lightweight vehicle is about
be 1000 W/m2, ISC is the reference nominal short-circuit
current at the standard condition, αt is the temperature 2 m2, which can be mounted with up to 500 W PV array.
coefficient, and Tref is the temperature of the standard The specifications of the PV array in the 5 kW class
condition and set to be 25 C. The diode saturation current lightweight PVFCHEV in this study are listed in
I0 is defined as: Table 2.

TABLE 2 The specifications of the PV array TABLE 3 The specifications of PEMFC

Parameter Value Unit Parameter Value Unit

Series-connected modules 2 Piece Number of cells 65 Piece
Cells per module 72 Piece Nominal voltage 45 V
Maximum current at MPP 5.84 A Nominal power 4.2 kW
Maximum voltage at MPP 42.8 V Peak power 6 kW
Short circuit current (Isc) 6.2 A Fuel supply pressure 1.5 bar

Open circuit voltage (Voc) 50.93 V Operating temperature 65 C
Maximum power per module 250 W Nominal stack efficiency 55 %

Abbreviation: PV, photovoltaic. Abbreviation: PEMFC, proton exchange membrane fuel cell.

FIGURE 5 The control strategy of the boost converter for the fuel cell. MPPT, maximum power point tracking; PEM, proton exchange
membrane; PMSM, permanent magnet synchronous machine
HUANG ET AL. 7 of 14

FIGURE 6 The block diagram of the energy management system. SOC, state-of-charge

FIGURE 7 The block diagram of the vehicle dynamics system

3.1.2 | FC and Boost converter zFk ðPH2 + PO2 Þ −ΔG

i0 = e RT ð6Þ
Rh
The model of the PEMFC stack is based on the FC stack
detailed model included in Simulink.19 The mathematical where z is the number of moving electrons, F is Fara-
model of PEMFC is shown in the following Equations.20,21 day's constant, k is Boltzmann's constant, R is ideal gas
The voltage of the FC stack VFC is: constant, h is Planck's constant, T is the cell temperature

 (K), ΔG is the size of the activation barrier, PH2 is the
iFC 1 partial pressure of hydrogen, and PO2 is the partial pressure
V FC = E OC −NA ln sT d −RiFC ð4Þ
i0 3 +1 of oxygen inside the stack (atm). The Tafel slope A is
shown as:
where EOC is open circuit voltage, iFC is the current of FC
stack, A is the Tafel slope, i0 is the exchange current, N is RT
A= ð7Þ
the number of cells, Td is the reaction time, and R is the zαF
internal resistance. The open circuit voltage EOC is:
where α is the charge transfer coefficient. The partial pres-
sure of hydrogen and oxygen are expressed as:
E OC = K C E n ð5Þ
PH2 = ð1 −U fH2 Þx%Pfuel , ð8Þ
where KC is the voltage constant at the nominal condition
of operation and En is Nernst voltage. The exchange current
PfO2 = ð1 −U fO2 Þy%Pair ð9Þ
i0 is calculated as:
8 of 14 HUANG ET AL.

where Pfuel is the fuel pressure, U fH2 ð%Þ is the nominal utiliza-
tion rate of hydrogen, x% is the percentage of hydrogen in
the fuel, Pair is the air pressure, U fO2 ð%Þ is the nominal utili-
zation rate of oxygen, and y% is the percentage of oxygen.
The utilization rates of hydrogen and oxygen are calculated
as follows:
6000RTNiFC
U fH2 = , ð10Þ
zFPfuel V fuel x%
6000RTNiFC
U fH2 =
2zFPair V air y%
where Vfuel(L/min) is the flow rate of hydrogen fuel and Vair
is the airflow rate.
The DC-DC converter for the FC adopts Boost
type19 and a proportional-integral (PI) controller is used
to control the power of FC by tracking the FC reference
current i*FC , which is given by the fuzzy logic controller.
TABLE 4 The main parameters of the PVFCHEV
The control scheme of the converter is shown in Figure 5
and the detailed specifications of the FC obtained from
the embedded Simulink model parameters are shown in
Table 3.
3.1.3 | Battery and electric motor
A Li-ion battery pack is used and the dynamic model of the
battery is given in Reference 22. For the lightweight EV, the
voltage of the DC bus is lower than that in ordinary EVs
considering safety, cost, and technical performance and thus
ð11Þ
this work set it as 144 V. The Li-ion battery pack consists of
12 series connected modules of 12 V and 0.8 Ah, totally
144 V/9.6 Ah.
The electrical motor is a 144 V/5 kW interior PMSM
with the associated driver based on PM Synchronous
Motor Drive (AC6) block provided by Simulink.23 The
motor drive features a closed-loop speed control based on
the vector control method.24 In this study, the maximum
torque of the PMSM is 50 Nm, and the maximum motor
speed of 3000 rpm.

Parameter Value Unit 3.2 | Energy management system

Total mass 800 kg
The energy management system determines the reference sig-
Maximum speed 60 km/h
nals for the motor drive and the DC/DC converter of the FC, to
Frontal area 2.3 m2 distribute the power among the electric sources. The block dia-
Rolling radius of the tires 0.2 m gram of the system is shown in Figure 6. It has four input sig-
Wheelbase 2.5 m nals, which are battery SOC, PV power, pedal position, and
Gear ratio of the final drive 3.0 - motor speed. The signal of pedal position is generated by the
Aerodynamic drag coefficient 0.36 - Longitudinal Driver block embedded in Simulink.25 The block
uses a PI controller to generate the normalized pedal signals to
Abbreviation: PVFCHEV, photovoltaic-fuel cell-battery hybrid electric vehicle.
follow the speed profile of a specific drive cycle. The power

FIGURE 8 The power flow of the PVFCHEV system in the functional test. PVFCHEV, photovoltaic-fuel cell-battery hybrid electric vehicle
HUANG ET AL. 9 of 14

FIGURE 9 The performance of the PVFCHEV under different situations: A, Solar radiance = 200 W/m2, initial battery SOC = 75%; B, Solar
radiance = 1000 W/m2, initial battery SOC = 35%; C, Solar radiance = 200 W/m2, initial battery SOC = 35%. PVFCHEV, photovoltaic-fuel cell-
battery hybrid electric vehicle; SOC, state-of-charge
10 of 14 HUANG ET AL.

F I G U R E 1 0 The performance of
the PVFCHEV in Scenario 1: A, Power
curves; B, Battery SOC curve.
PVFCHEV, photovoltaic-fuel cell-battery
hybrid electric vehicle; SOC, state-of-
charge

demand is obtained by multiplying the required motor torque where α is the proportional gain, PFC is the reference
and motor speed. power of FC.
The input parameters of PV power (PPV) and driving Then the reference power is transferred into the reference cur-
power demand (Pdemand) are scaled to the range from 0 to rent using the polarization curve of the FC. The lifespan of FC
1 using the following equations: can be significantly cut down if its working situation is subject to
frequent and drastic change. Thus, to mitigate the degradation of
PPV
θðPPV Þ = max , ð12Þ FC, a rate limiter restricts the change rate of FC power within
PPV
0.5 kW/s. Note that in this study, the power range to run the FC
system is 0.6 to 6 kW; the peak power of the motor is 5 kW and
Pdemand
θðPdemand Þ = max ð13Þ the maximum power of the PV array is 0.5 kW.
Pdemand

max max
where PPV and Pdemand are the maximum power of the PV
array and the peak power of the motor, respectively.
The fuzzy logic controller adopts the control strategy
developed in Section 2.2. Inputting the parameters of battery
SOC, solar power and demand motor power, the controller
generates the parameter θ(PFC), which is transferred to the
reference power of the FC as follows:
PFC = αθðPFC Þ ð14Þ
3.3 | Vehicle dynamics
The vehicle dynamics system models the mechanical trans-
mission parts of the vehicle20 and is visualized in Figure 7.
Notice that this model only incorporates regenerative brak-
ing since this article aims to explore the performance of the
electrical system and the EMS. The road inclination and the
wind speed are set as zero in this model. Table 4 shows the
vehicle's specifications.26
HUANG ET AL.
F I G U R E 1 1 The performance of
the PVFCHEV in Scenario 2: A, Power
curves; B, Battery SOC curve.
PVFCHEV, photovoltaic-fuel cell-battery
hybrid electric vehicle; SOC, state-of-
charge
4 | SIMULATION RESULTS AND
DISCUSSIONS
4.1 | Functional test
The functional test simulates the PV-FC-battery HEV work-
ing at different operating modes over a driving cycle: idling,
starting, cruising, accelerating, and regenerative braking.
The following explains the testing procedure:
1. t = 0~2 seconds, the vehicle stops, and the PV array
charges the battery.
2. t = 2~6 seconds, the pedal position is set to 70%
(starting).
3. t = 6~11 seconds, release the pedal to 25% (cruising).
4. t = 11~16 seconds, push the pedal to 85% (accelerating).
5. t = 16 seconds, the pedal position is set to −70% (regen-
erative braking).
Figure 8 shows the simulation results in the situation
where the solar radiance is 1000 W/m2; the ambient temper-
ature is 25 C, and the initial battery SOC is 75%.
11 of 14
Since the solar radiation is intense and the battery SOC is
high, the battery acts as the primary power source. As seen
in Figure 8, when the vehicle stops, the battery power is neg-
ative, indicating that it is being charged from solar energy.
When the vehicle is accelerating, the battery and PV array
power the vehicle together until the FC starts when the
power demand becomes higher. When the power demand
decreases, the battery absorbs the excessive power of the FC
since it cannot instantaneously reduce its power. When the
motor reaches its peak power steadily, the battery is the main
power source, and the FC becomes a secondary source, to
reduce the battery SOC to a relatively low level. When the
braking pedal is pushed, the battery absorbs the kinetic
energy from motor regenerative braking, while the PV array
continuously charges the battery. Figure 9 shows the perfor-
mances of the PVFCHEV under different solar radiations
and battery states.
In Figure 9A, the solar radiation is weak and the battery
SOC is high, and thus the battery acts as a secondary power
source, providing a small proportion of the driving power. In
Figure 9B, the solar power is high and battery SOC is low. The
12 of 14
FC acts as the primary power source and charges the battery to
recover its SOC in a short time. Since solar radiation is intense,
it is necessary to reserve some capacity of the battery for stor-
ing solar energy. Thus, when the motor reaches its peak power,
the battery is set to provide a small part of the demand power,
which also helps the FC work at relatively high efficiency. In
Figure 9C, to avoid the potential damage of over discharge to
the battery, when the battery SOC and solar power are low, the
FC generates more power and the battery only discharges to
supplement the deficit power when the vehicle is accelerating.
Figures 8 and 9 manifest that the PVFCHEV's electrical
system works well regarding the functions of driving the vehi-
cle, regulating power distribution, and controlling the electric
motor. The EMS gives a robust performance with the changes
in the solar radiations, battery's states, and driving conditions.
4.2 | Driving cycle test
The WLTP (World Harmonized Light-duty Test Procedures)
Class 1 driving cycle27 is adopted as the standard cycle con-
dition to test the performances of the designed lightweight
PVFCHEV. Three different scenarios are set to simulate
HUANG ET AL.
F I G U R E 1 2 The comparison of
different energy management
strategies: A, Hydrogen consumption; B,
Battery SOC. SOC, state-of-charge
different environments and battery states. The three scenar-
ios are elucidated below.
Scenario 1: Sunny. The solar radiation is 1000 W/m2.
The PV array charges the battery, and the initial battery
SOC reaches 75% when starting.
Scenario 2: Overcast/rainy. The solar radiation is
200 W/m2. The PV power is insufficient in weak solar radia-
tion and the initial battery SOC is 35%.
Scenario 3: Night-time. The solar radiation is 0 W/m2.
The PV array does not work in this situation, and thus only
the FC and battery work to power the vehicle, and the initial
battery SOC is 55%.
Figure 10 shows the power distribution of the PVFCHEV
power system and the battery SOC in Scenario 1. As seen in
Figure 10A, the output power of the PV array is high, and
thus the battery works as the main power source according
to the EMS. The FC only works at a low power range where
the efficiency of the FC system is relatively high and
remains idle when the demand power is low. The battery is
set to discharge to clear its energy storage to store solar
energy as much as possible, and thereby the battery SOC is
in decline generally, as shown in Figure 10B.
HUANG ET AL.
Figure 11 shows the power curves of the system and the
battery SOC in Scenario 2. The FC is set to generate more
power than the demand power to recover the battery SOC to
a middle level at the beginning. When the battery SOC
reaches about 45%, the FC stops to generate excessive
power and begins to follow the demand power, and the bat-
tery works to supplement the power for acceleration.
When the PVFCHEV runs in the nighttime scenario in
which the PV array is off and only the FC and battery work,
the performance of a PVFCHEV using FLC based EMS can
be compared with a simple FC EV using power-following
control (PFC) strategy. The PFC strategy regulates the out-
put power of the FC to follow the change of driving power,
and the battery represents the buffer power source.28 The
hydrogen consumptions and battery SOC of the vehicle
using the two energy management strategies are shown in
Figure 12. In Figure 12A, the vehicle using PFC strategy
consumes one-liter more amount of hydrogen than that using
FLC strategy in the driving cycle. The differential of the
hydrogen consumption is partially converted into electricity
and then stored in the battery, and thus the battery SOC of
the vehicle using PFC is higher at the end of the test, as seen
in Figure 12B. However, such secondary energy transforma-
tion leads to energy loss, which could reduce energy effi-
ciency and thereby is not economic. Collectively, the
proposed EMS based on FLC possesses a better fuel econ-
omy than commonly used PFC, mainly because that FLC
renders the FC working at the high-efficiency area, while the
PFC merely regulates the FC to follow the motor power,
thus reducing the energy efficiency of the system.
5 | CONCLUSI ON S
This article studies the technical feasibility of PV-FC-battery
hybrid electric vehicle via a model-based method, along with
designing an energy management strategy for it. A 6 kW
class lightweight PVFCHEV system is modeled in Matlab/
Simulink environment via physics-based modeling method,
consisting of the electrical system, energy management
system, and vehicle dynamics system. The EMS for
PVFCHEV is developed based on FLC strategy, using the
demand power, the power of the PV array and the battery
SOC as three input parameters, and the reference power of
FC as the output parameter. It aims to distribute the power
flow among the power sources rationally and maximize the
utilization of solar energy with the intermittent and stochas-
tic characteristics.
The model and the EMS are validated by the simulations
of the functional test and driving cycle test. The main find-
ings are listed as follows. In the functional test, the designed
electrical system proves to work well regarding the functions
of propelling the vehicle and regulating power distribution
13 of 14
under varying solar radiations and battery states. The results
further validate the feasibility of a PVFCHEV. In the WLTP
driving cycle test, the designed EMS works effectively and
robustly under the fast-changing profile of the demand
power, the variance of solar power, and different levels of
battery SOC. Furthermore, it has a better fuel economy than
a power following control strategy, saving about 1 L hydro-
gen fuel in the given 8.1 km test.
The modeling and simulations in this work is a novel
research thread, while the experimental validation is another
thread that requires equal or more volume of work. In this con-
text, future work may focus on designing and implementing
the experiments to validate the proposed PVFCHEV and its
EMS. Fortunately, the physical model of PVFCHEV in this
work can help facilitate the design of experiment apparatuses
because of the use of actual physical component models.
A C KN O W L E D G M E N T
This work is supported in part by the National Key Research
and Development Program (No.: 2018YFB0105402 and
No.: 2018YFB0105703), the National Nature Science Foun-
dation of China (51806024), the Chongqing Research Pro-
gram of Foundation and Advanced Technology (No.:
cstc2017jcyjAX0276), the Venture & Innovation Support
Program for Chongqing Overseas Returnees (cx2018051)
and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Univer-
sities (No.: 244005202014, and No.: 2018CDXYTW0031).
OR CI D
Caizhi Zhang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2060-4245
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How to cite this article: Huang Z, Zhang C, Zeng T,
Lv C, Chan SH. Modeling and energy management of
a photovoltaic-fuel cell-battery hybrid electric vehicle.
Energy Storage. 2019;1:e61. https://doi.org/10.1002/
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