| Abstract: | The efficient operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) significantly relies on the reliable control of air‐feed system. The core control objective in air‐feed system is to track a pre‐defined reference of the oxygen excess ratio to avoid oxygen starvation and stack damage. In this paper, we focus on the modeling of the air‐feed system in a PEMFC and the robust nonlinear controller design for the oxygen excess ratio tracking control. To facilitate the subsequent nonlinear controller design, a specific affine‐like, second‐order, control‐oriented model of oxygen excess ratio dynamic behavior is developed, and the modeling uncertainty is estimated and compensated by using an extended state observer (ESO). The control‐oriented model is verified via a high‐fidelity plant model. A nonlinear controller for oxygen excess ratio tracking control is proposed based on the triple‐step technique which is robust against the system disturbances. The tuning rule of the controller parameters is discussed in the scheme of the linear system. Finally, simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed controller under variant operating conditions compared with baseline controllers. |
