Energy Management Algorithm of Fuel Cell/Supercapacitor System for Electrical Vehicle

Overview & Synopsis

The main objective of this work is to apply rule-based energy management algorithm between two sources and a load using two interleaved floating DC/DC converters dedicated to vehicular applications; the first is a two-way converter, the second is a one-way converter. These two converters are combined to interface the hybrid power which is composed of a fuel cell as the primary source for the vehicle and a storage system (supercapacitor) as a secondary source. This article provides a modelling of the two proposed DC-DC converters as well as a control strategy for each of them. However, the studied system being powered by two sources, it is essential to apply an energy management algorithm which must ensure the distribution of the energy flows between the sources and the load in order to satisfy the required power. A rule based algorithm is applied as well to generate source power references considering state-of-charge limitation to avoid overcharging and deep discharging in order to decrease the lifetime of the supercapacitor. To evaluate the performance of the studied converters, simulation results of the hybrid system with the energy management algorithm are presented.