Robust DC/DC converter control for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell application

This study investigates a robust controller in regulating the pulse width modulation (PWM) of a DC/DC converter for a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) application. A significant variation in the output voltage of a PEMFC depends on the power requirement and prevents a PEMFC from directly connecting to a subsequent power bus. DC/DC converters are utilized to step-up or step-down voltage to match the subsequent power bus voltage. In this study, a full dynamic model, which includes a PEMFC and boost and buck DC/DC converters, is developed under MATLAB/Simulink environment for control. A robust PWM duty ratio control for the converters is designed using time delay control (TDC). This control enables state variables to accurately follow the dynamics of a reference model using time-delayed information of plant input and output information within a few sampling periods. To prove the superiority of the TDC performance, traditional proportional-integral control (PIC) and model predictive control (MPC) are designed and implemented, and the simulation results are compared. The efficacies of TDC for the PEMFC-fed PWM DC/DC converters are validated through experimental test results using a 100 W PEMFC as well as boost and buck DC/DC converters. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.