An optimized energy management strategy for fuel cell hybrid vehicles

Abstract

Fuel cell hybrid vehicles are environmentally friendly and have good development prospects. Their energy management is very important, but there are currently few studies on this topic. In this paper, an optimized energy management strategy specifically applied to fuel cell hybrid vehicles is proposed. Fuel cell hybrid vehicles have some different characteristics from ordinary hybrid vehicles, which need to be considered in energy management. For the fuel cell to remain activated during driving, its output power must remain above a minimum power. In addition, it takes some time for the fuel cell to start up. These characteristics are considered in the vehicle model. The energy management strategy proposed in this paper maximizes energy use efficiency by controlling the SOC value of the battery. The SOC value of the battery is in the proper range during driving. At high speeds, fuel is consumed as a source of energy and the battery is charged to keep its SOC at a high level. When approaching the destination or when the vehicle is traveling at a low speed, the battery is discharged to reduce fuel consumption. Applying this strategy to the ECE-15 and EUDCL environments, the simulation results show that this optimized energy management strategy improves the energy efficiency of the fuel cell and enables the battery to operate at the appropriate power.