Novel variable structure control for the temperature of PEM fuel cell stack based on the dynamic thermal affine model

Dynamic thermal management of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack (PEMFC) is a very important aspect, which plays an important role on electro-reaction. Its variation also has a significant influence on the performance and lifespan of PEMFC stack. The temperature of stack should be controlled efficiently, which has great impacts on the performance of PEMFC due to the thermal variation. Based on the control-oriented dynamic thermal affine model identified by optimization algorithm, a novel variable structures control (VSC) with rapid-smooth reaching law (RSRL) and rapid-convergent sliding mode (FCSM) is presented for the temperature control system of PEMFC stack. Numerical test results show that the method can control the operating temperature to reach the target value satisfactorily, which proves the effectiveness and robustness of the algorithm.

► The affine state space control-oriented model is designed and realized for the variant structure control (VSC) strategy.
► The VSC with rapid-smooth reaching law and rapid-convergent sliding mode is presented for the PEMFC stack temperature.
► Numerical results show that the method can control the operating temperature to reach the target value satisfactorily.