Evaluation method of oxygen excess ratio control under typical control laws for proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

For real-used proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), it is critical to design an effective controller and evaluate its performance. Current evaluations of controllers are often empirical or qualitative, and quantitative evaluation methods are lacking. In this paper, the quantifiable objective evaluation method is proposed for assessing the controller performance, including optimal control, adaptive control, variable structure control, and model-based control, aiming at the oxygen excess ratio. In the method, the anti-starvation, transient-state, steady-state, and multiple load-changing performances are comprehensively considered through weighting, rating, and especially the introduction of negative scores through the integration of four independent indexes. The importance and effectiveness of evaluation method are verified through the specific analysis of four controllers and the internal states of PEMFC. Besides, the evaluation method can be extended appropriately, such as considering the robustness, optimal output power, and other practical problems, which is significant for the development of PEMFC system controller. • Quantifiable method assessing effect of four controllers, superior to empirical one. • Method rates and weights the performance by four newly proposed indexes. • Method balances anti-starvation, transient, steady, and multi-load-changing. • Optimal PID performs best among fuzzy, robust, and model based control unexpectedly. • Method is beneficial for controller selection in real design of fuel cell controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]