A Vector Control Based Supercapacitor Current

Control Algorithm for Fuel Cell and Battery -

Supercapacitor Integrated Electric Vehicles
Vivek Vardhan Joshi
Dept. of Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
Guwahati, India
vivekvardhanjoshi1219@hotmail.com
Nishita Mishra
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Rajasthan Technical University
Kota, India
nishita.mishra1001@gmail.com
Devesh Malviya
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Delhi, India
devesh.malviya@ee.iitd.ac.in

Abstract—While driving an electric vehicle, one of the promi-
nent factor which plays a vital role in determining vehicle
performance, is load variation. In order to achieve the load
levelling, satisfactory recovery of braking energy and for better
performance in transient load conditions, the energy storage
systems like batteries and supercapacitors must be employed in
fuel cell electric vehicles. In this paper, fuel cell stack is integrated
with battery and supercapacitor at DC link of the motor drive
system for driving the induction motor. The fuel cell is directly
connected to the DC link, while battery and supercapacitor are
connected through bidirectional New boost converter. The battery
in the New boost converter is responsible for the dc link voltage
stabilization and supercapacitor deals with load transients. The
field oriented vector control of the induction motor is utilized
on the drive side to achieve the diverse vehicle speed and load
torque demands. Here, a new strategy is introduced for the
supercapacitor reference current calculation in the New boost
converter, from the torque and flux producing components of
∗ ∗
the induction motor stator reference currents Iqs and Ids to
meet the transient speed and load variations. The analysis of
the integrated system along with power sharing among fuel cell,
battery and supercapacitor for the diverse vehicle speed and
load torque variations is carried out in MATLAB/Simulink, and
corresponding simulation results are reported.
Index Terms—Bidirectional converter, Field oriented vector
control, supercapacitor, Electric vehicles (EVs), Fuel Cell Vehicles
(FCVs).
I. I NTRODUCTION
The greatest challenges nowadays in FCV advancements
are vehicle recharging and management. EVs with a fuel cell
generator intended for the average power only. They can’t
supply the transient load demand due to the slow internal
electrochemical characteristics of the fuel cell. In these frame-
works the utilization of energy storage devices (e.g., batteries,
supercapacitors) are essential for quick power delivery. On the
other hand, drive side of the EVs should employ induction
motor with field-oriented vector control to avoid the problem
of inherent coupling effect (i.e. both torque and flux are a
function of voltage or current and frequency), which gives
a sluggish response and makes the system easily prompt to
instability.
978-1-5386-7339-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Several multiple-input bidirectional dc-dc converters are
proposed in the literature for FCV application. Full-bridge
dc-dc converters along with a high-frequency transformer,
with ZVS/ZCS can be considered as one of the best choices,
where isolation and high voltage transformation are mandatory
[1], [2]. In the case of Voltage-fed converters [3], [4], high
pulsating input current and limited soft-switching range are
the major drawbacks. An interesting solution, named with
New boost DC-DC converter is proposed in [5] for integrating
the battery and supercapacitor with the motor drive system
where only three power electronic controllable switches are
used compared to conventional two boost converter which
uses four. Several vector control of induction motor solutions
are proposed in the literature for decoupled flux and torque
control. A unified approach to modelling and vector control
of induction motors (IM) is presented [6] in comparison with
the conventional method. [7] is introduced with the solution to
the multiplication terms of state variables in speed and rotor
flux estimation of an induction motor in vector control with
extended Kalman filter approach.
Reference [5] analysed the New boost converter with resistive
load only, whereas in this paper the New boost converter
is integrated with the fuel cell at the DC link of the motor
drive system by considering the practical load conditions. On
the drive side of the vehicle, field oriented vector control
of induction motor is performed to achieve the different
vehicle speed and load torque demands. Here, a new strategy
is introduced for the calculation of supercapacitor reference
current in the New boost converter, from the torque and flux
producing components of induction motor stator reference
currents Iqs∗ ∗
and Ids to meet the transient speed and load
variations. The fuel cell could not be able to contribute to
sudden load variation and supplies almost constant power. The
battery in the new boost converter is responsible for the dc
link voltage stabilization and supercapacitor deals with load
transients. Power sharing among the fuel cell, battery and the
supercapacitor for the different load conditions is analysed.
 II. S YSTEM C ONFIGURATION
Fig. 1 demonstrates the topology of fuel cell electric vehicle
which consists of a fuel cell, battery pack (E1 ), supercapacitor
(E2 ), DC-DC converter, 3-ph Inverter, 3-ph Induction Motor S3 D3 io
and the load (Vehicle Propulsion System). Fuel cell supply
the steady-state requirement of the Vehicle dynamics where R2 L2 i2
the battery pack and supercapacitor manages the power flow +
during the load transients. A fuel cell is connected to the
inverter through DC link while battery and supercapacitor are E2 C
integrated through a bi-directional DC-DC converter. In this S2 R Vout
paper, New Boost converter topology is adopted for power D2
flow management. This topology is a modified version of
a conventional double boost converter [5] where only three -
controllable power electronic switches are needed.
E1 S1 D1
Te
DC link
Fuel + 3-Ph R1 L1 i1
Vdc Induction
Cell - Inverter Load
Motor

ia ib ic
TL Fig. 2. New Boost DC-DC converter structure
E2 PWM
New
Boost TABLE I
E1
Converter I NDUCTOR VOLTAGE AND C APACITOR CURRENTS IN SWITCHING CYCLES
Vector
Control
Gain Switching Inductor Inductor Capacitor
PWM S.No. Configuration Voltage Voltage current
(vL1 ) (vL2 ) (ic )
iqs* ids*
I1 S1 - OFF
DC Bus Vdc E1 − i1 .R1 − E2 − i2 .R2 i1 − Vout
Super ifc 1 S2 - ON R
voltage Supercapacitor Vout
capacitor S3 - ON
Control Reference
I2 Current
Current
Control Control I2 ref S1 - ON
System Calculation E1 − i1 .R1 E2 − i2 .R2 − i2 − Vout
2 S2 - OFF Vout R
S3 - ON
Fig. 1. Block diagram of fuel cell and battery-supercapacitor integrated S1 - ON
electric vehicle system E1 − i1 .R1 E2 − i2 .R2 − Vout
3 S2 - ON R
S3 - OFF
The New Boost DC-DC converter structure is represented
in Fig. 2, where S1 , S2 & S3 are controllable switches. The
adequate switching configuration is, where the only one of
expressed by (2), (3) and (4), from which it is evident that
the three switches is OFF, while the other two ones are ON
Vout can be regulated by controlling I1 and I2 currents of the
simultaneously.
inductors L1 and L2 respectively.
The pulse width modulation (PWM) command signals
should be generated to comply with relationship (1), so as E1 − (1 − D1 ).Vout
to ensure a correct behaviour of the converter system. I1 = (2)
R1

D1 + D2 + D3 = 1 (1) E2 − (1 − D2 ).Vout
I2 = (3)
R2
where, Di (i = 1,2,3) is the switch on-duty ratio, Ts is
switching time period.
( E1 (1−D
R1
1)
+ E2 (1−D2 )
R2 )
Vout = D12 D 2 (4)
With reference to the converter system depicted in Fig. [ R1 + R1 + R22 ]
2, inductor voltages vL1 , vL2 and capacitor current ic for
different switching configurations are given in Table I.

After applying volt-sec balance for inductors L1 , L2 and III. C ONTROL S CHEMES
current-sec balance for capacitor C, along with some elemen- In the proposed integrated system the following control
tary calculations, the average value of inductor currents I1 , schemes are adopted to ensure the load levelling in both steady
I2 and output voltage Vout in steady state condition can be state and transient conditions.
 1. DC link voltage control of motor drive system to suitably PWM
ia
ib Induction
Vdc
integrate the fuel cell, battery and supercapacitor. Inverter ic Motor

2. Supercapacitor current control to meet the transient cur- Speed

Sensor
rent requirement in case of sudden speed and load variations. Current
Controllers
3. Supercapacitor current reference calculation for transient
Rotor flux ia* ib* ic*
disturbances. reference
ids* ids*
| r |*
4. Field-oriented vector control of the induction motor with Calculation
iqs*
abc

inverter hysteresis current control to achieve the reference dq

speed and torque demands. Iqs* | r |

e
Calculation Calculation e
The first two control schemes are implemented with New Torque Te* ω
boost converter as shown in Fig. 3. The battery current I1 is reference

Rotor flux
controlled for DC link voltage regulation and supercapacitor Calculation
ids
abc
current I2 is controlled according to the load demands. The iqs
dq

field-oriented vector control of induction motor [8] with 3-

ph inverter hysteresis current control scheme [8] to drive
ω
induction motor are presented in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. Here, a Speed
Controller +
-

new approach is mentioned for the supercapacitor’s reference ω*

Speed
reference
current calculation from the vector control of the induction
motor to supply the transient load current.
Fig. 4. Field oriented vector control of induction motor

DC bus voltage control

Saw Tooth
i1
ia
Vout i1* VCont1 -
- + +
+ PI - PI
G1 for S1
ia*
Vout* PWM G2 for S2
G3 for S3
ib Inverter
- Switching control
+ logic
i2* ib* signals
i2 - PI
+
VCont2
ic
Super capacitor current control -
+
ic*

Fig. 3. Control system block diagram related to the supercapacitor current Fig. 5. Hysteresis current control
control and DC link voltage control

A. Supercapacitor reference current calculation in New boost Fig. 6 shows the new method for the calculation of super-
converter capacitor current reference using (5) and (6) .
The algorithm for calculation of torque and flux producing
∗
components of induction motor stator reference currents, Iqs From Iqs*
∗
Vector Is* I 0* I 2*
and Ids in d-q reference frame is demonstrated in Fig. 4. control Ids* f (Iqs*,Ids*) +
-
f (Io,I1,D1,D2)

The peak value of the induction motor stator reference Ifc

current, Is∗ can be calculated from the d-q reference currents,
∗ ∗
Iqs and Ids as given in (5)
Fig. 6. Supercapacitor reference current calculation

q
Is∗ = ∗ )2 + (I ∗ )2
(Iqs (5) Where, If c is the fuel cell output current.
ds

The relationship among the New boost converte’s output For the change in load on the vehicle, field oriented vector
current I0 , battery current I1 and supercapacitor current I2 control scheme of induction motor generates the induction mo-
can be derived as: tor stator reference current Is∗ from d-q reference currents Ids
∗
∗
and Iqs . Then, supercapacitor reference current is computed
from Is∗ and is fed to the control scheme of the New boost
I0 = I1 (1 − D1 ) + I2 (1 − D2 ) (6) converter represented in Fig. 3.
 IV. S IMULATED E LECTRIC V EHICLE M ODEL DESIGN
S PECIFICATIONS

1) Nominal operating point of Fuel cell - (50 A, 500 V)

2) Battery voltage (E1 ) - 100 V
3) Supercapacitor voltage (E2 ) - 50 V
4) Inductor (L1 ) - 0.002 H
5) Inductor (L2 ) - 0.001 H
6) Resistor (R1 ) - 0.02 ohm
7) Resistor (R2 ) - 0.01 ohm
8) DC Bus capacitor - 0.01 F
9) Reference Voltage (Vref ) - 560 V
10) Switching frequency - 10 kHz
11) Input line to line voltage - RMS 460 V
12) Stator Resistance Rs - 0.087 ohm
13) Stator Inductance Ls - 0.8 mH
14) Rotor Resistance Rr - 0.228 ohm
15) Rotor Inductance Lr - 0.8 mH Fig. 8. New boost converter
16) Mutual Inductance Lm - 34.7 mH
17) No. of Poles - 4
18) Power specifications - 50 HP

V. S IMULATION D IAGRAMS

The simulation model of FCV is shown in Fig. 7. This

model includes a fuel cell, battery-supercapacitor, new boost
converter, 3-Ph inverter, induction motor and control algo-
rithms.

Fig. 9. Vector control of induction motor

Fig. 7. Electric vehicle model
Fig. 8 corresponds to the New Boost Converter model with
DC Bus voltage control and supercapacitor’s current control.
Here, the battery current is controlled to regulate the DC bus
voltage and supercapacitor current is controlled according to
the load variations.
Fig. 9 represents the field oriented vector control of induc-
tion motor. This block includes the calculation of reference
flux, rotor field angle and stator current references i∗ds , i∗qs .
VI. R ESULTS
Simulation results of the electric vehicle model for the speed
references of ωr = 120 rad/sec and 160 rad/sec with load
torque variation of 100 Nm to 200 Nm are reported.
From time t = 0 - 5 sec, speed reference is set to ωr =
120 rad/sec & at t = 5 secs, it is changed to 160 rad/sec and
continued till t = 10 sec. While load torque reference, Tl =
200 Nm, from t = 3 - 4 sec and t = 8 - 9 sec, for remaining
period till t = 10 sec, it is set to 100 Nm.
Fig. 10 shows the induction motor voltage, current, torque
and speed waveforms and Fig. 12 depicts the fuel cell output
voltage (DC bus voltage) and current. Fuel cell output voltage
is maintained at 560 V and it supplies 30 A at steady state
throughout the time period of t = 0 - 10 sec, except for small
fluctuations in voltage and current when speed and load torque
references are changed at t = 3 sec, 5 sec & 8 sec. This shows
that fuel cell cannot supply transient load current, which is
 TABLE II
S IMULATION RESULTS DESCIPTION
Volt (V)

Time Speed Torque

(sec) reference reference Description
(rad/sec) (Nm)
Induction motor speed (ωr ) and
Current (A)

torque (Te ) achieved the reference

value by t = 2 sec. Since, the start-
ing and until t = 2 sec, induction
0-3 120 100 motor has drawn the huge current
to meet the high starting require-
ment, which is supplied by both
) r

battery and supercapacitor, while

Speed (rad/sec)(

rise due to fuel cell has supplied the steady

Increase in r fall in Tl
Dip due to current at 30 A.
rise in Tl
Dip in rotor speed and DC bus
voltage is observed due to sudden
increment in the load torque refer-
Increase in Te 3-4 120 200 ence. Battery current is increased
Torque (Nm)(Te)

Increase in Te to increase the to 80 A to maintain the DC bus

speed voltage at 560 V, while the super-
capacitor current is raised to 105
A to meet the sudden load torque
increment.
Time (sec) The increment in rotor speed and
DC bus voltage is observed due
to the sudden decrement of load
Fig. 10. Induction motor dynamic behaviour torque reference to 100 Nm from
4-5 120 100 200 Nm. Battery went into charg-
ing mode to control the DC bus
voltage and supercapacitor current
eventually supplied by supercapacitor and battery. is decreased suddenly from 105 A
to 40 A since load torque require-
Fig. 13 presents the output voltage and current supplied ment is decreased.
by the battery and supercapacitor in New Boost converter. It
The sudden dip in DC bus volt-
is observed that the battery and supercapacitor currents are age is observed. I1 , I2 and Te
changed suddenly for different speed and torque references are suddenly raised to increase the
to meet the transient speed and load requirements. Induction rotor speed to 160 rad/sec. Once
5-8 160 100 the speed attains 160 rad/sec by
motor steady state waveforms at speed reference of 120 rad/sec t = 7 sec, Te and I2 are settled
and load torque reference of 100 Nm are shown in Fig. 11 back to previous value, while I1 is
All the observations for different speed and load torque increased to 5 A to maintain the
DC bus voltage of 560 V at the new
references from t = 0 - 10 sec are tabulated in Table II. speed of 160 rad/sec.
Power sharing calculation for the fuel cell, battery and
Dip in rotor speed and DC bus
supercapacitor at different speed and load torque variations voltage is observed due to sudden
using simulation results : increment in the load torque refer-
Case 1: Speed & load torque reference i.e. (ωr , Tl ) = (120 8-9 160 200 ence. Battery current is increased
to 160 A to maintain the DC bus
rad/sec, 100 Nm) for t = 4 - 5 sec. voltage at 560 V, while superca-
Average power supplied by FC = 30 A x 560 V = 16800 W pacitor current is raised to 120 A
Average power supplied by supercapacitor = 50 V x 40 A to meet the sudden load torque
increment.
= 2000 W
Average power absorbed by battery = 100 V x 30 A The increment in rotor speed and
DC bus voltage is observed due
= 3000 W to the sudden decrement of load
Load power = 120 rad/sec. x 100 Nm = 12000 W torque reference to 100 Nm. Bat-
9 - 10 160 100 tery current is again decreased to
5A to control the DC bus voltage
Case 2: Speed & load torque reference i.e. (ωr , Tl ) = (160 and the supercapacitor current is
rad/sec, 200Nm) for t = 8 - 9 sec. decreased suddenly to 40 A since
Average power supplied by FC = 30 A x 560 V = 16800 W the load torque requirement is de-
creased.
Average power supplied by supercapacitor = 50 V x 120 A =
6000 W
Average power supplied by battery = 100 V x 120 A
 Volt (V)
Current (A)
Speed (rad/sec)
Torque (Nm)
Time (sec)
Time (sec)
Fig. 11. Induction motor steady state behaviour
Volt (V)
Current (A)
Time (sec)
Fig. 12. Fuel cell output voltage & current
= 12000 W
Load power = 160 rad/sec. x 200 Nm = 32000 W
Case 3: The transient power supplied by supercapacitor at
t = 5 sec when speed reference is changed from 120 rad/sec
to 160 rad/sec = 50 V x 150 A = 7500 W
VII. C ONCLUSION
A dynamic model of fuel cell-based electric vehicle, which
is implemented in MATLAB/Simulink environment has been
presented. The simulation results demonstrate that fuel cell
generator can supply only steady power and could not be
able to supply the load transient demand. Therefore, auxiliary
supply such as battery and supercapacitor are inevitable in
FCV. Power sharing results have proven the need of super-
capacitor in supplying the transient power in electric vehicle.
Rise in I1 against
Current (A)
Battery
rise in Tl
Rise in I2
Super capacitor
against rise
Current (A)
Rise in I2 in r
against rise
in Tl
Dip due to Rise due to
DC bus
Volt (V)
Dip due to
rise in Tl dip in Tl rise in r
Time (sec)
Fig. 13. New boost converter output voltage and battery, supercapacitor
currents
Field-oriented vector control of the induction motor is carried
out to meet speed and torque demands and also to generate
the supercapacitor current references during transients. The
proposed model is best suited for the designing of complete
electric vehicle model considering steady state and transient
performances.
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