Abstract
Fuel cells are considered as one of the most promising methods to produce electrical energy due to its high-efficiency level that reaches up to 50%, as well as high reliability with no polluting effects. However, scientists and researchers are interested more in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Thus, it has been considered as an ideal solution to many engineering applications. The main aim of this work is to keep the PEMFC operating at an adequate power point. To this end, conventional first-order sliding mode control (SMC) is used. However, the chattering phenomenon, which is caused by the SMC leads to a low control accuracy and heat loss in the energy circuits. In order to overcome these drawbacks, quasi-continuous high order sliding mode control (QC-HOSM) is proposed so as to improve the power quality and performance. The control stability is proven via the Lyapunov theory. The closed-loop system consists of a PEM fuel cell, a step-up converter, a DSPACE DS1104, SMC and QC-HOSM algorithms and a variable load resistance. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme, experimental results are compared with the conventional SMC. The obtained results show that a chattering reduction of 84% could be achieved using the proposed method.
Highlights
Under the decrease of fossil energy, the process of obtaining the necessary power to cover the human needs is facing many problems
Due to the integrated security system which protects the stack from damage, the implementation of the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) could be a hard task
Aiming to hold the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell operating at an adequate power point, the MPPT algorithms are used
Summary
Under the decrease of fossil energy, the process of obtaining the necessary power to cover the human needs is facing many problems. These have been identified in terms of cost, reducing environmental pollution and lack of energy sources. One of the most commonly used fuel cells is the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). It is characterised by high power density, low-temperature operation (fast start-up), lightweight and zero pollution [15,16]. Comparative results with the SMC have demonstrated that this latter is Energies 2020, 13, 4317; doi:10.3390/en13174317 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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