Modeling of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell based on the hybrid particle swarm optimization with Levenberg–Marquardt neural network

This paper presents a nonlinear modeling approach of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) based on the hybrid particle swarm optimization with Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm neural network (PSO-LM NN). The PSO algorithm converges rapidly during the initial stages of a global search, while it becomes extremely slow around the global optimum. On the contrary, the LM algorithm can achieve faster convergent speed around the global optimum, while it is prone to being trapped in the local minimum. Therefore the hybrid algorithm with a transition from PSO search to LM training is proposed to train the weights and thresholds of neural network, which aims to exploit the advantage of the both algorithms. An accurate mathematical model is an extremely useful tool for the fuel cell design, and neural network is an excellent optional tool for complex nonlinear dynamic system modeling such as PEMFC. In the paper, firstly a highly reduced PEMFC dynamic physical model is established to generate the data for the PSO-LM NN model training and validation, and then the neural network nonlinear autoregressive model based on the PSO-LM algorithm is applied in modeling PEMFC voltage and temperature model, and finally the validation test result demonstrates that the trained PSO-LM NN model can efficiently approach the dynamic behavior of a PEMFC.