Digital control of a fuel cell converter system: Verification, validation and test using a model-based design approach

In this paper, digital control of a current-fed full bridge DC-DC converter for a fuel cell power system is investigated. The generated code for the designed digital PI compensators with anti-windup protection was implemented using Embedded Integrated Development Environment Link software with the Real-Time Workshop in MATLAB. Using the TMS320F2812 DSP the generated algorithm is validated, implemented and deployed. Rapid prototyping implementation has resulted in efficient code generation for the controller design by minimizing the overall time, optimizing the generated C-Code and speeding up the algorithm execution. After the correctness of the simulation results was confirmed, the functionality of the produced code was evaluated using processor-in-the-loop co-simulation. A 1.2kW prototype fuel cell converter system is implemented and tested. Experimental results have verified the theoretical and modelling analysis.