Fuzzy control of hydrogen pressure in fuel cell system

Precise control of hydrogen pressure is crucial for the performance and durability of fuel cell systems. With the widely used common-rail injection system, traditional PID controller still dominates. For a long time, the hydrogen pressure fluctuates acutely when hydrogen purge valve switches or load sharply changes with using PID controller. In recent studies, several new control strategies are presented. However, mostly of them are theoretical and experimental. In this study, an improved common-rail injection system, hydrogen injector/ejector assembly is introduced. Based on a real fuel cell system, a Mamdani fuzzy controller is designed to regulate the hydrogen pressure. The algorithm of fuzzy controller is explained in detail. A comparative study is carried out between fuzzy controller and PID controller. According to the results, the stability of hydrogen pressure with using fuzzy controller is better than using PID controller. This research could be useful for the control of fuel cell system. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.