Dynamic performance improvement of proton exchange membrane fuel cell system by robust loop shaping and artificial intelligence optimized fractional order PI controllers

ABSTRACT

Due to inherent nonlinear behavior, the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell system yields in poor power quality. The sudden change in stack current causes uncertainty in PEMFC behavior resulting in degraded output. This necessitates the control of supply manifold pressure on the cathode side to prevent oxygen starvation. In this work, three techniques, namely, robust loop shaping, smith predictor, and Fractional Order Proportional Integral (FOPI) controllers, are designed after incorporating parametric uncertainty in system description. Further, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) artificial intelligence technique is implemented to optimize the parameters of smith predictor and Fractional Order PI controllers. By stabilizing the system across the entire parameterized uncertainty range, the proposed control strategies, namely, loop shaping, PSO-Smith Predictor, and PSO-FOPI controller effectively compensate uncertainty effects. The simulation result shows that the PSO-tuned FOPI controller has best overshoot at operating points 3, 4, and 5 having a value of 0.505% in comparison with PSO-Smith Predictor where overshoot (ranging from 19.88% to 40.141%) is too high; and loop shaping controller having high values of overshoot (more than 40% at every operating point) Thus, PSO-FOPI controller exhibits the best performance with far superior overshoot and steady-state stability.

KEYWORDS:

• Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)
• Fractional order proportional-integral (FOPI) controller
• Particle swarm optimization (PSO), stack current (i_stack), compressor voltage (v_cv)

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Sharing of data is not relevant to this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Swati Singh

Swati Singh is pursuing PhD from Amity University, Noida, India in Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department. Controller designing and renewable energy systems are her area of interest.

Vijay Kumar Tayal

Vijay Kumar Tayal pursued his Ph.D. and M.Tech from National Institute Technology, Kurukshetra, India. He has more than 25 years of academic experience. Presently, he serves as an Associate Professor at Amity University, Noida, India. Robust and fuzzy control system design is one of his areas of interest.

Hemender Pal Singh

Hemender Pal Singh completed his doctorate from Rohilkhand University, U.P., India. He has more than 20 years of teaching experience in various organizations. He is currently a Professor and the Head of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department at Amity University, Noida, India. Optical Communication, Control System and Instrumentation Systems are his areas of expertise.

Vinod Kumar Yadav

Vinod Kumar Yadav completed his doctoral degree from IIT, Roorkee, India. He did his M. Tech from National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, India. He has more than 15 years of academic experience in various organizations. At present, he is working as Professor at Delhi Technological University, India.