PSO algorithm‐based optimal power flow control of fuel cell/supercapacitor and fuel cell/battery hybrid electric vehicles

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to optimize the design and power management control fuel cell/supercapacitor and fuel cell/battery hybrid electric vehicles and to provide a comparative study between the two configurations.

Design/methodology/approach

In hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), the power flow control and the powertrain component sizing are strongly related and their design will significantly influence the vehicle performance, cost, efficiency and fuel economy. Hence, it is necessary to assess the power flow management strategy at the powertrain design stage in order to minimize component sizing, cost, and the vehicle fuel consumption for a given driving cycle. In this paper, the PSO algorithm is implemented to optimize the design and the power management control of fuel cell/supercapacitor (FC/SC) and fuel cell/battery (FC/B) HEVs for a given driving cycle. The powertrain and the proposed control strategy are designed and simulated by using MATLAB/Simulink. In addition, a comparative study of fuel cell/supercapacitor and fuel cell/battery HEVs is analyzed and investigated for adequately selecting of the appropriate HEV, which could be used in industrial applications.

Findings

The results have demonstrated that it is possible to significantly improve the hydrogen consumption in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEVs) by applying the PSO approach. Furthermore, by analyzing and comparing the results, the FC/SC HEV has slightly higher fuel economy than the FC/B HEV.

Originality/value

The addition of electrical energy storage such as supercapacitor or battery in fuel cell‐based vehicles has a great potential and a promising approach for future hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). This paper is mainly focused on the optimal design and power management control, which has significant influences on the vehicle performance. Therefore, this study presents a modified control strategy based on PSO algorithm (CSPSO) for optimizing the power sharing between sources and reducing the components sizing. Furthermore, an interleaved multiple‐input power converter (IMIPC) is proposed for fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle to reduce the input current/output voltage ripples and to reduce the size of the passive components with high efficiency compared to conventional boost converter. Meanwhile, the fuel economy is improved. Moreover, a comparative study of FC/SC and FC/B HEVs will be provided to investigate the benefits of hybridization with energy storage system (ESS).

Citation

Hegazy, O., Van Mierlo, J., Barrero, R., Omar, N. and Lataire, P. (2013), "PSO algorithm‐based optimal power flow control of fuel cell/supercapacitor and fuel cell/battery hybrid electric vehicles", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 86-107. https://doi.org/10.1108/03321641311293768