An Improved Voltage Regulation Performance of Floating Interleaved Boost Converters for Fuel Cell Applications Subject to Input Variation and Load Change

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a novel control framework for exactly regulating the output voltage of floating interleaved boost converters (FIBCs), which have been widely employed in fuel cell applications in recent years. Firstly, a mathematical model of the FIBC is constructed according to Kirchhoff’s current and voltage loop principles. Then a cascade control structure with a current inner loop and voltage outer loop is developed to achieve the desired voltage regulation performance. The current controller is established based on the generalized super-twisting algorithm (GSTA) to ensure that the inductor current exactly follows the current reference, which is generated by the outer loop. Meanwhile, an active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) framework is utilized for robustly regulating the output voltage despite the presence of input variation and load change in the voltage control loop based on a nonlinear continuous GSTA-based extended state observer (GSTA-based ESO). The stability of a closed loop system based on the GSTA controller and the GSTA-based ESO is conclusively proven using the Lyapunov theory. The Simscape model of the FIBC is developed, which is used to verify the feasibility and the appropriateness of the recommended control algorithm. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method compared to several previous works.