Energy management strategy for fuel cell-supercapacitor hybrid vehicles based on prediction of energy demand

COSTA-CASTELLÓ, RAMON; JUNCO, SERGIO; RODA, VICENTE; FEROLDI, DIEGO; CARIGNANO, MAURO G.; NIGRO, NORBERTO M.

JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2017 vol. 360 p. 419 - 433

0378-7753

Fuel cell hybrid vehicles (FCHV) are an excellent choice to alleviate the growing pollution inurban environments. However, the platforms powered by fuel cell (FC) and supercapacitor (SC)represent a powertrain with active state-dependent constraints, providing an adverse scenariofor the energy management. In these platforms, the performance of the vehicle in terms offuel economy and drivability is noticeably affected by the energy management strategy (EMS).This paper presents a novel strategy based on the estimation of future energy demand. Theproposed strategy aims at maintaining the state of energy (SOE) of the SC between two limits,which are computed online using the states of the system. Such limits are designed to preventactive constraint situations, avoiding the use of friction brakes and situations of non-powercompliance in a short future horizon. A case study corresponding to a hybrid electric busoperated under real urban driving conditions is presented. The results show improvementson hydrogen consumption and power compliance compared to the widely reported EquivalentConsumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS). Also, the comparison with the optimal strategyobtained offline through Dynamic Programming is included. The performances of the strategiesare tested by simulation and experimentation in a hybrid testing bench.