Adaptive Second Order Sliding Mode Control of a Fuel Cell Hybrid System for Electric Vehicle Applications

We present an adaptive-gain second order sliding mode (SOSM) control applied to a hybrid power system for electric vehicle applications. The main advantage of the adaptive SOSM is that it does not require the upper bound of the uncertainty. The proposed hybrid system consists of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with a unidirectional DC/DC converter and a Li-ion battery stack with a bidirectional DC/DC converter, where the PEMFC is employed as the primary energy source and the battery is employed as the second energy source. One of the main limitations of the FC is its slow dynamics mainly due to the air-feed system and fuel-delivery system. Fuel starvation phenomenon will occur during fast load demand. Therefore, the second energy source is required to assist the main source to improve system perofrmance. The proposed energy management system contains two cascade control structures, which are used to regulate the fuel cell and battery currents to track the given reference currents and stabilize the DC bus voltage while satisfying the physical limitations. The proposed control strategy is evaluated for two real driving cycles, that is, Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS) and Highway Fuel Economy Driving Schedule (HWFET).