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Application of A Hardware-In-The-Loop DC To DC Converter and Microgrid Simulation To A PEMFC
Application of A Hardware-In-The-Loop DC To DC Converter and Microgrid Simulation To A PEMFC
Application of A Hardware-In-The-Loop DC To DC Converter and Microgrid Simulation To A PEMFC
Abstract—Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells are efficient to a real fuel cell system without the need of providing these
energy converters that convert chemical energy directly into elec- application scenarios physically.
trical energy. These units are suitable for dynamic applications This paper develops such a HIL-simulation for a physically
and can be used for stationary as well as mobile electrical power
generation. The field of application, however, predetermines the available fuel cell system being connected to the simulation
type of electrical connection network, electrical storage devices of a constant 48V dc voltage micro-grid targeting on an
and electrical loads that the fuel cell is attached to. This study automobile application [9]. PEM fuel cells deliver a load
puts the focus on the interaction of a physically available fuel cell dependent dc voltage. To provide a constant dc voltage the fuel
with the electrical application such as storage and consumers. As cell is linked through a DC/DC converter to the dc electrical
an example, a microgrid connected through a DC/DC converter
to the fuel cell is realized by a Hardware-in-the-loop simulation grid or microgrid. By application of the HIL-simulation this
being linked to the fuel cell. The Hardware-in-the-loop simulation paper investigates the reaction on a physically available PEM
is compared to the physical system consisting of the fuel cell and a fuel cell connected to the electrical grid and consumers. In
DC/DC converter. A model predictive control for electrical power this approach the electrical application connected to the fuel
is presented. Experimental results of the Hardware-in-the-loop cell is available through the simulation environment. As an
simulation and the physical system are shown.
example the HIL-simulation comprises a DC/DC converter
Index Terms—DC/DC Converter, Hardware-in-the-loop Simu- and a micro-grid as shown in figure 1. A power management
lation, PEM Fuel Cell. strategy is assumed to be in place, managing the power flows
between fuel cell, electrical storage and the grid. The power
I. I NTRODUCTION management system is assumed ideal and instantaneous, such
Due to their low emission of greenhouse gases and noise that the load current to the DC/DC converter can be set without
polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells are very restriction and immediately.
promising for future stationary as well as mobile and dy-
namic electrical power supply. PEM fuel cells are intensely PEM fuel cell stack and
DC/DC converter and electrical grid
researched. Research topics cover amongst others modeling controllable electric load
Ist Idc
and state estimation [1]–[3], health monitoring [4], [5] and dc power-
micro-
Pst Pdc manage-
grid
control algorithms [6]–[8] as well as applications such as for dc ment
Ust Udc
autonomous robots [2] or for the automotive sector [1]. Ploss ideal,
storage immediate
Coupling of a physically available fuel cell system to a
simulation environment is a novel topic and has not been Hardware Hardware-in-the-loop simulation
looked at so far. The simulation interacts with the physical
fuel cell system such that a Hardware-in-the-Loop-(HIL)- Fig. 1. Connection of a PEM fuel cell with the simulation of a DC/DC
converter and a micro-grid to form a Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)-simulation.
simulation with a PEM fuel cell system is established. As
the real application being connected to the fuel cell would During operation of PEM fuel cells a sufficient supply
experience, the simulation environment is influenced by the of oxygen and fuel has to be ensured to avoid starvation
fuel cell system on the one hand but also influences the effects. Starvation can lead to damages of the fuel cell stack
fuel cell system on the other hand. There is a bidirectional [10]. Starvation effects occur during fast load transients if
communication between the physical fuel cell system and the the dynamics of oxygen or fuel supply does not suffice to
simulation environment. A HIL-simulation has the advantage replenish oxygen and fuel in the amount needed. To reduce
that the simulated application can be adapted or changed the risk of starvation, the load transient gradient could be
quickly. For example, the same physical fuel cell could be limited. However, if the fuel cell is connected to the grid by
used to power a simulated car or to power a simulated micro- means of a voltage converter the current to be drawn from the
grid with electrical consumers. This HIL-simulation provides a fuel cell stack cannot be set directly. Model predictive control
tool to investigate specific application scenarios being applied (MPC), which is an optimization based control strategy, has
978-1-4673-8463-6/16/$31.00
c 2016 IEEE the advantage of easily incorporating constraints on states and
inputs. So, limits on the current as well as its gradient can Urev that is diminished by activation losses Uact and ohmic
be included easily as constraints. MPCs have already been losses Uohm . Concentration losses are neglected as they play
applied to fuel cell systems [2], [8], [11]. To determine the a minor role in the operating range of the fuel cell used. The
accuracy of the HIL-simulation by comparing it to its real cell voltage depends on Ist , on the stack temperature Tst , on
physical counterpart, an identification of the DC/DC converter pO2 and the hydrogen partial pressure pH2 . Anode pressure
model is performed. Further, a nonlinear MPC (NMPC) for control motivates assuming a constant pH2 . Voltage loss Uact
electrical power is applied to the HIL-simulation. is modeled according to [14].
This paper is structured as follows. In Section II ’Fuel cell
Urev = 1.229 − 0.85 · 10−3 (Tst − 298.15) (7)
and converter model’ the models of the DC/DC converter and
p 1 p
the fuel cell are presented. The HIL-simulation is presented 4.3 · 10−5 Tst ln
an O2
+ + ln
in section III ’HIL-simulation’. A nonlinear model predictive p0 2 p0
(498/Tst )
control of converter power is presented and is applied to the e
Uact = ζ1 + ζ2 Tst + ζ3 Tst ln pO2 (8)
HIL-simulation in section IV ’NMPC of electrical power’. 5.08 · 10−6
The experimental setup and results are presented in section + ζ4 Tst ln (Ist )
V ’Experimental setup and results’. This section further com-
pares the HIL-simulation with its physical representation and The very thin polymer membrane is assumed sufficiently
results of the NMPC of electrical power are shown. Model hydrated and therefore is assumed to show a constant ohmic
and controller parameters are given at the end of this paper. resistance Rohm . Stack voltage Ust is gained as the sum of all
cell voltages in the stack assuming identical cells.
II. F UEL CELL AND CONVERTER MODEL
Models of the fuel cell system and the DC/DC converter Ust = ncells (Urev − Uact − Rohm Ist ) (9)
with an 48V output voltage are presented in the following. Parameters ζ1 , ζ2 , ζ3 , . . . ζ4 and Rohm have been identified
A. Model of the fuel cell stack and its periphery by a minimization of least square errors using experimental
The model of the PEM fuel cell stack describes the essential data. The electrical power Pst provided by the fuel cell stack
system dynamics and comprises the controlled supply of air is derived as follows.
mass flow Wmfc , stack cathode pressure pst and stack current Pst = Ust Ist (10)
Ist . The model is derived from the nonlinear model presented
in [12]. The dynamics are approximated as linear first order B. Model of the DC/DC boost converter
systems with time constants τmfc , τp and τI . Reference values The DC/DC converter takes the load dependent stack volt-
Wmfc,ref = Wmfc,ref (Ist ) and pst,ref = pst,ref (Ist ) are functions of age Ust that is lower than 48V and converts it into a constant
Ist . The load current drawn by the DC/DC converter at its fuel 48V dc voltage. The converter is controlled for output voltage
cell side is Ist,in , which results in the stack current Ist . and has a settling time much lower than the sampling time Ts
dWmfc 1 of the HIL-simulation. Therefore, the DC/DC converter can
= (Wmfc,ref − Wmfc ) (1)
dt τmfc be modeled as static. The converter model is derived from the
dpst 1 one presented in [15] and is gained by a balance of electrical
= (pst,ref − pst ) (2) power across the converter including the power loss Ploss . In
dt τp
dIst 1 this modeling approach Ploss depends on the converter output
= (Ist,in − Ist ) (3) power Pdc with pdc = Pdc /Pnom being the power normalized
dt τI
to the nominal power Pnom . Parameters a0 , a1 and a2 for
Air is modeled as 21% (vol.) oxygen (O2 ) and 79% (vol.) Ploss are identified by a least square error minimization using
nitrogen (N2 ). The oxygen partial pressure pO2 in the fuel cell experimental data. The converter draws a current Ist,in at its
stack is gained by a stationary analysis of the molar flows NO2 fuel cell side. The converter current at its grid side is Idc .
for O2 and NN2 for N2 . Molar flows are given in equations (5)
and (6). The chemical reaction consumes an oxygen mass flow Pac = 48V · Idc (11)
that is proportional to Ist and the number of cells in the stack
Ploss = a0 + a1 pdc + a2 p2dc Pnom (12)
ncells . MO2 and MN2 are the molar masses, F is the Faraday
constant and xO2 = 0.23 is the oxygen mass fraction in air. Ist,in = (Pac + Ploss )/(Ust ) (13)
NO2 III. HIL- SIMULATION
pO2 = pst (4)
NO2 + NN2 A power supply system consisting of a PEM fuel cell, a
1 Ist DC/DC converter and an electrical grid is represented by a
NO2 = xO2 Wmfc − ncells (5)
MO2 4F HIL-simulation. In this approach the DC/DC converter and
1 the electrical grid, that is approximated by an immediate
NN2 = (1 − xO2 )Wmfc (6)
MN2 controllable electric load, are simulated. The HIL-simulation
An introduction to modeling the cell voltage can be found is connected to the physically available PEM fuel cell, which
in [13]. Cell voltage results from the reversible cell voltage is connected to a controllable electric load. This load takes
the current reference Il,ref . The current value Ist,in returned by IV. NMPC OF ELECTRICAL POWER
the HIL-simulation is applied as Il,ref to the physical load. To In model predictive control (MPC) an optimal control
determine the current Ist,in the DC/DC converter simulation problem with finite time horizon is solved. Its solution is
model requires the measurement of the stack voltage Ust an optimal control sequence, whose first element is applied.
according to equation (13). The DC/DC converter current The current system state that is gained through measurement
Idc is the input to the HIL-simulation, whose output is the or state estimation serves as initial condition for the MPC.
converter electrical power Pdc . A block diagram of the HIL- After every sampling time step the time horizon is shifted
simulation clarifying the interconnections between physical by one time step and the procedure is repeated. MPC has
fuel cell system and simulation model is shown in figure 2. the advantage of incorporating limitations on states and inputs
as constraints. Nonlinear constraints and a nonlinear system
HIL-simulation
DC/DC DC/DC model lead to nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC)
Simulation Fuel Cell and Load
converter converter [16]. An introduction to NMPC can be found in [17]. Often,
current Idc Pdc power Pdc an analytical solution of the NMPC’s optimization problem is
DC/DC Il,ref electric
converter Ist,in load impossible to find. Numerical methods are then used to solve
the optimization problem. One method is sequential quadratic
stack voltage Ust programming (SQP). The NMPC presented in the following
is designed for the system comprising the PEM fuel cell, the
DC/DC converter and the micro-grid. The NMPC prescribes
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the HIL-simulation depicting the interaction between the current Idc such that the converter electrical power Pdc
physical PEM fuel cell system and DC/DC converter simulation model.
follows the reference Pref and that constraints on stack current
The HIL-simulation is established on a standard PC con- (14), current (15) and its gradient (16) are satisfied. The NMPC
nected to the fuel cell system by an Ethernet network and is can be considered a part of the power management system. In
realized in MATLAB as a computer program, whose sequence a scenario with load changes at the grid side that would lead
is shown in figure 3. After an initialization step for opening to stack current rates exceeding its limit, the NMPC would
data communication with the fuel cell system, the HIL- have to take into account that the energy delivered by the
simulation runs in a loop for every time step k until the storage must be compensated by energy delivered to it during
stop criterion is reached. Within the loop measurements are long term operation. This could be done by incorporating the
taken, the DC/DC converter current Idc is determined e.g. by a storage model into the NMPC. In this study, however, current
control algorithm or feedforward control, the DC/DC converter rates at the grid side are chosen such that the fuel cell current
is simulated and the current result is applied to the physical rate does not violate the stack current rate limit. Thus, the
fuel cell at the end of the sampling time step. Afterwards, power management will be neglected in the following.
data communication is closed. Control algorithms are applied
Ist,min ≤ Ist ≤ Ist,max (14)
at the step ’Feedforward Control or Controller’. The fuel cell
system is operated at a sampling time of Ts =100ms. The HIL- Idc,min ≤ Idc ≤Idc,max (15)
simulation is bound to the cycle time Ts as it requires fuel cell d
system measurements as shown in figure 2. −ΔIdc ≤ Idc ≤ ΔIdc (16)
dt
A. System model for the NMPC
Initialization
time step k: repeat until stop criterion
The NMPC system model has states x = [x1 x2 x3 ]T
with x1 = Wmfc , x2 = pst , x3 = Ist and the output variables
Measurement y = [y1 y2 y3 y4 y5 ]T with y1 = x1 , y2 = x2 , y3 =
stack current Ist(k), stack voltage Ust(k), x3 , y4 = Ust and y5 = Pdc . An ideal and immediate power
pressure pst(k), temperature Tst(k),
management that manages power flows between the grid and
mass flow Wmfc(k)
sampling time Ts
current in A
stack current Ist (real)
the anode. This reduces the risk of blocking the reactive sites
60
by water. The steady flow of air through the stack cathode
side takes out water and reduced the risk of flooding the 40
cathode. Hydrogen and air mass flows are supplied by mass 20
flow controlled valves (MFC). The anode side purge valve 50
voltage in V
periodically opens to purge the anode in order to vent nitrogen 45 dc/dc voltage Udc (HIL) stack voltage Ust (HIL)
that diffuses from the cathode to the anode. Hydrogen is dc/dc voltage Udc (real) stack voltage Ust (real)
40
stored in a pressurized tank. The exhaust valve at the cathode 35
side is used for cathode pressure control. Anode and cathode 30
pressures are controlled for by an underlying pressure control. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
time in s
2000
air dc/dc power Pdc
1500 power reference Pref
compressor cooling exhaust stack power Pst (HIL)
pump valve 1000
100
dc/dc current Idc
Fig. 6. Experimental setup of the PEM fuel cell. stack current Ist (HIL)
80
current in A
Ist,min = 25A
60 Ist,max = 130A
The fuel cell stack can be operated in its normal range of
operation of stack currents of 25A to 130A. Stack currents 40 Idc,min = 20A
Idc,max = 80A
below 20A are only used for start-up and shut-down. Usage 20
of stack currents of 130A - 150A are restricted to 5% of the
1
current gradient
the entire stack operating time. Stack current should rise and
dIdc/dt in A/s
ΔIdc = 1A/s
fall with a maximum of 5A/s. Anode and cathode pressures 0.5
of up to 1.7bar are possible. The stack temperature is between 0
-0.5
48◦ C and 60◦ C. Reference values for pressures, temperatures
-1
and mass flows depend on the actual stack current value.
50
voltage in V