Research on the Control of the Cathode Gas Flow and Pressure of A Small PEM Fuel Cell

In this paper, we firstly present a nonlinear model for describing the dynamic behavior of the cathode flow system of a small PEMFC fuel cell, and then the model is linearized around the nominal operating point. Based on this linearized model, the linear quadratic regulator optimal control method is applied to design the state feedback controller for realizing the control of the cathode gas flow and pressure simultaneously. Simulation results show that this method can effectively balance the two control objects between maintaining the oxygen excess ratio and keeping the change of the cathode gas pressure within the allowed range of the system when the load is changed