Development of the energy management strategy for a ZAFC and Li-ion duel batteries module

The purpose of this research is to develop an energy management strategy for a (Zinc-Air Fuel Cell)ZAFC and Li-ion duel batteries module. The goal is to fulfill the demand from the driver, meanwhile, to maintain the State of Charge (SoC) of the Li battery at a desired level such that all the energy in a journey comes from ZAFC and also the Li battery can have longer cycle life. The energy management strategy is a rule-base strategy, in which, the motor power comes from ZAFC while the demanding power is low. When the demanding power crosses over a threshold, the Li battery compensates the ZAFC to fulfill the demand. While in idling, the ZAFC charges the Li battery to maintain the SoC at a desired level. The charging law is basically a PI controller. To maintain the Li battery SoC level, a brake recharging mechanism is also considered. Finally, simulations were conducted to evaluate the performance of the energy management strategy. Results show that the energy management strategy can provide satisfactory performance.