Performance Comparison of Different Power Management Control Strategies for a Hybrid Fuel Cell/Battery Vehicle

Power management systems are one of the most important components in modern hybrid vehicles. They are needed to optimize the operation of the hybrid system components. In this paper, a model for a fuel cell/battery vehicle is developed using PSAT and then tested with four power management control strategies utilizing the driving cycle of Amman city, the capital of Jordan. The main components of the hybrid vehicle are a PEM fuel cell, battery, and a brushless dc motor. PEM fuel cells are popular due to their good start up, high power density, and low operating temperature. The role of the battery in a hybrid system is to boost the system power during start-up and transient events in addition to storing the energy recovered from the braking process. The developed hybrid vehicle model is designed and configured so that it matches the power, acceleration, and maximum speed of a midsized vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. The proposed control strategies are the thermostat strategy, fuel cell optimized strategy, load following strategy and fuzzy logic strategy. All four control strategies are implemented in simulation utilizing PSAT. The simulation results indicate that the best performance in terms of fuel economy is achieved by the load following control strategy.