Power Management Strategy of a PEM Fuel Cell-Battery Powered Electric Vehicle

A MATLAB-Simulink based mathematical vehicle simulation model is developed in this investigation to analyze power management strategy of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell and battery powered electric vehicle. The vehicle simulation model incorporated a real-world commercial passenger vehicle operator’s drive cycle inputs and associated vehicle dynamics to determine accurate estimation of total onboard power requirements and withdrawal of power from the fuel cell and battery sources to meet the demand. The power management strategy is designed to meet the vehicle’s onboard power demand based on the availability of hybrid combination of fuel cell and battery power sources. The fuel cell stack is the primary power source of the vehicle. The fuel cell is also charging the battery with excess power produced onboard and hence controls the state-of-charge of the battery. Battery is used as a supplemental power source for meeting the vehicle’s peak power demands. The parameters are optimized to implement the power management strategy by considering the battery state-of-the charge, the drive torque and the vehicle drive performance. The model simulation results with optimized parameters showed that the power requirement of the electric vehicle was significantly affected by the combination of fuel cell and battery power management system as well as the operating behaviors of the end user (driver).