Approximation-based adaptive control of constrained uncertain thermal management systems with nonlinear coolant circuit dynamics of PEMFCs

Abstract

This paper addresses an adaptive temperature control problem for preventing the membrane dehydration and electrode flooding of nonlinear proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Compared with the previous thermal control results of PEMFC temperature systems, the main contributions of this paper are two-fold: (i) nonlinear thermal management systems with nonlinear coolant circuit dynamics are firstly adopted in the temperature control field of PEMFCs and (ii) temperature constraints are considered to avoid the membrane dehydration and electrode flooding phenomena of PEMFCs. It is assumed that all system parameters and nonlinearities of thermal management systems including nonlinear coolant circuit dynamic are unknown. A recursive control design methodology is presented to guarantee the robust regulation and constraint satisfaction of the stack temperature. From the Lyapunov theorem, the stability of the resulting closed-loop system is analyzed.