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IFAC PapersOnLine 52-29 (2019) 91–96

A
A Nonlinear
Nonlinear Controller
Controller Based
Based on
on aa High
High Gain
Gain Observer
Observer for
for aa Cascade
Cascade Boost
Boost
A Nonlinear Controller
Converter in
Converter in a
in a Based
Fuel
a Fuel on
Cell
Fuel Cell a High Gain
Distributed
Cell Distributed Observer
Power
Distributed Power for
Supply
Power Supply a
System Boost
Cascade
System
Supply System
Converter
Converter in a Fuel Cell Distributed Power Supply System
Abdelouahad
Abdelouahad Tahri*,
Abdelouahad Tahri*, Hassan
Tahri*, Hassan El
Hassan El Fadil*,
El Fadil*, Aziz
Fadil*, Aziz Rachid*,
Aziz Rachid*, Magarotto
Rachid*, Magarotto Eric**,
Magarotto Eric**, Fouad
Eric**, Fouad Giri**
Fouad Giri**
Giri**

Abdelouahad Tahri*, Hassan El Fadil*, Aziz Rachid*, Magarotto Eric**, Fouad Giri**
*ESIT
*ESIT Team,
*ESIT Team, LGS
Team, LGS Laboratory,
LGS Laboratory, ENSA,
Laboratory, ENSA, Ibn
ENSA, Ibn Tofail
Ibn Tofail University,
Tofail University, 14000,
University, 14000, Kénitra,
14000, Kénitra, Morocco.
Kénitra, Morocco.
Morocco.
(e-mails:
*ESIT
(e-mails: Team, abd.tahri@gmail.com;
LGS Laboratory,
abd.tahri@gmail.com; elfadilhassan@yahoo.fr;
ENSA, Ibn Tofail
elfadilhassan@yahoo.fr;
(e-mails: abd.tahri@gmail.com; elfadilhassan@yahoo.fr; rachidaziz03@gmail.com) University, rachidaziz03@gmail.com)
14000, Kénitra,
rachidaziz03@gmail.com) Morocco.
**Laboratoire
**Laboratoire d’Automatique de Caen, Université de Caen, Bd Marechal Juin, B.P 8156, 14032,
**Laboratoire (e-mails: d’Automatique
d’Automatique de
abd.tahri@gmail.com;
de Caen,
Caen, Université de Caen,
elfadilhassan@yahoo.fr;
Université de Caen, Bd
Bd Marechal Juin, B.P
rachidaziz03@gmail.com)
Marechal Juin, B.P 8156,
8156, 14032, Caen
14032, Caen
Caen
**Laboratoire d’Automatique (e-mail:
(e-mail: de
(e-mail: fouadgiri@yahoo.fr; eric.magarotto@unicaen.fr)
Caen, Université deeric.magarotto@unicaen.fr)
fouadgiri@yahoo.fr;
fouadgiri@yahoo.fr; Caen, Bd Marechal Juin, B.P 8156, 14032, Caen
eric.magarotto@unicaen.fr)
(e-mail: fouadgiri@yahoo.fr; eric.magarotto@unicaen.fr)
Abstract: This study aims to design aa controller for aa cascade boost converter connected to a fuel cell in
Abstract: This
Abstract: This study
study aims aims to to design
design a controller
controller for for a cascade
cascade boostboost converter
converter connected
connected to to aa fuel
fuel cell
cell in in
aaaAbstract:
distributed
distributed
distributed Thisgenerator
study aims
generator
generator system.
system.
system. Knowing
to design
Knowing
Knowing that
a controller the
that the
that fuel
the for
fuel cell
fuela cell
cascade
cell voltage
boost
voltage
voltage is too low
is converter
is too low
too low to to satisfy
toconnected
satisfy load
satisfy load
load requirement,
to requirement,
a fuel cell in
requirement,
and
aand
and it
it varies
it varies with
distributed
varies generator
with
with aaa nonlinear
system.manner
nonlinear
nonlinear Knowing
manner
manner depending
that the on
depending
depending fuelthe
on
on the
the load
cell
load
load current
voltage
current
current with
is too
withlow
with uncertainties
to satisfy load
uncertainties
uncertainties lying
lying on
on fuel
on fuel cell
lyingrequirement,
fuel cell
cell
operating
and it varies
operating conditions,
operating conditions,
with
conditions, we a we
nonlinear
we use use a
use aa DC DC
manner converter
depending
DC converter
converter to to step
on
to step the
step up up the
load
up the low
current
the low voltage
low voltage with
voltage and and find
uncertainties
and findfind out out a
lying control
controlfuel
out aa control on law
lawcell
law to
to
to
regulate
operating
regulate the
the converter we
conditions,
converter output
output use voltage.
a DC
voltage. Here, aa lyapunov
converter
Here, lyapunov
to step stability
up the
stability low technique
voltage
technique is
and
is used
usedfind to out
to design
a
design the nonlinear
control
the nonlinear
law to
regulate the converter output voltage. Here, a lyapunov stability technique is used to design the nonlinear
controller.
regulate
controller. the An
An average
converter
average current
output
current mode
voltage.
mode control
Here,
control amethod
lyapunov
method is
is adopted
stability
adopted
controller. An average current mode control method is adopted to satisfy the above objective. Moreover, to satisfy
technique
to satisfy the
is
the above
used
above to objective.
design
objective. the Moreover,
nonlinear
Moreover,
aaa high
high
controller.
high gain gain observer
gainAnobserver
averageis
observer is developed
iscurrent modeto
developed
developed to estimate
tocontrol
estimate
estimate methodthe
the converter output
is adoptedoutput
the converter
converter to satisfy
output current instead
the above
current
current instead
instead of to
objective.
of
of to to bebe captured.
beMoreover,
captured.
captured.
Besides,
aBesides,
Besides, high gain the
the cascade
observer
cascade boost
is
boost converter
developed
converter tois
is proved
estimate
proved to
to be
the
be more
converter
more suitable
output
suitable
the cascade boost converter is proved to be more suitable for high DC link voltage compared for
for high
current
high DC
DC link
instead
link voltage
of
voltage to compared
be captured.
compared to
to
to
aBesides,
aa single single
single boost boost
boost converter.
the cascade
converter.
converter. Theoretical
boostTheoretical
converter is
Theoretical studies
provedand
studies
studies and
and simulation
to simulation
be more suitable
simulation using
using for
using Matlab
Matlab
Matlab Simpower
highSimpower
DC link voltage
Simpower System
Systemcompared
System tools
tools show
tools show
show to
that
athat
that the
the adaptive
single
the adaptive
adaptive controller
boost converter.
controller meets
meets the
controllerTheoretical
meets the objectives
the studies andfor
objectives
objectives for what
what it
forsimulation
what it is
it designed.
is using
is designed.
designed. Matlab Simpower System tools show
that © 2019, the adaptive
IFAC controller meets
(International the objectives
Federation of Automatic for what it isHosting
Control) designed. by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Keywords:
Keywords: Fuel
Fuel
Fuel cell,
cell, boost
cell, boost converter,
boost converter,
converter, adaptive
adaptive
adaptive control,
control,
control, nonlinear
nonlinear
nonlinear observer,
observer,
observer, Lyapunov
Lyapunov
Lyapunov approach
approach
approach
Keywords: Fuel cell, boost converter, adaptive control, nonlinear observer, Lyapunov approach

 operating
operating point
operating point has
point has been
has been proposed.
been proposed. Reference
proposed. Reference (Ndtoungou
Reference (Ndtoungou et
(Ndtoungou et
et
1.
1. INTRODUCTION
1. INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION al,
al, 2012)
2012)
operating presents
presents
point has a
a
beennon
non linear
linear
proposed.
al, 2012) presents a non linear control strategy for a twocontrol
control
Referencestrategy
strategy for
for
(Ndtoungou a
a two
twoet
The climate issues 1.
andINTRODUCTION
oil depletion problem have paved stages cascade boost converter. Likely, aaa sliding mode
The climate issues and
The climate issues and oil depletion problem have pavedoil depletion problem have paved al,
stages
stages2012) presents
cascade
cascade a
boost
boost non linear
converter.
converter. control
Likely,
Likely, strategy for
sliding
sliding a two
mode
mode
opportunities
The climate issues
opportunities to
to clean
cleanand and
andoil sustainable
depletionenergy
sustainable problem
energy sources
sourceshaveas solar,
solar, stages
as paved controller
controller
controller is
is used
cascade
is usedboost
used with
with two
with two
two levels
levels cascade
converter.
levels Likely,boost
cascade
cascade boost
boost in
in (Belhaj
a sliding
in (Belhaj
(Belhaj mode et
et
et
opportunities to clean and sustainable energy sources as solar,
wind
wind and and
opportunities fuel
fueltocell
and fuel cell
cellcleanelectric source.
and sustainable
electric source. Fuel Fuel cell
Fuelenergy energy
sources
cell energy
energy systems
as solar,
systems is al,
is controller 2017).
2017). is used with two levels cascade boost in (Belhaj et
al, 2017).
al,
wind electric source. cell systems is
aaa promising
wind and fuel cell
promising solution
electricfor
solution forsource. providing
Fuel cell
providing electric
energy energy
electric systems in
energy is al,
in In
In control
In 2017). field,
control
control field, Lyapunov
field, Lyapunov stability
Lyapunov stability tools
stability tools are
tools are already
are already used
already used to
used to
to
promising solution for providing electric energy in
astationary
promising
stationary and
stationary and automotive
solution
and automotive for
automotive application application
providing
application and and
electric
and to to guarantee
energy
to guarantee in design
In
design controllers
control field,
controllers for
Lyapunov
for conventional
stability
conventional
guarantee design controllers for conventional boost converters (Tahri boost
tools
boost converters
are already
converters (Tahri
used to
(Tahri et
et
et
climate
stationary
climate friendliness
friendliness and and
automotive
and efficiency
application
efficiency (Tolj
(Tolj and et
et al,
to
al, 2013
guarantee
2013 ).
). al
al (2014
design
(2014 a,
a, b),
controllers
b), El
El Fadil
for
Fadil et
et al,
al, Tahri
conventional
Tahri et
et al
boost
al (2015
(2015 a,
converters
a, b)).
b)). (Tahri et
climate friendliness and efficiency (Tolj et al, 2013 ). al (2014 a, b), El Fadil et al, Tahri et al (2015 a, b)).
Besides,
climate
Besides, a fuel
friendliness
a fuel cell
cell distributed
and
distributed energy
efficiency
energy systems
(Tolj
systems etis
is suitable
al, 2013
suitable for
for). To(2014
al
To validate
validatea, formal
b), El
formal results,
Fadil et
results, al,simulation
Tahri
simulation et alis(2015
is carried
carried a, out in
b)).
out in Matlab
Matlab
Besides, a fuel cell distributed energy systems is suitable for To validate formal results, simulation is carried out in Matlab
feeding
feeding isolated
Besides,
feeding a fuel cell
isolated
isolated sites,
sites,
sites, in
in addition
distributed
in addition
addition energythey
they generate
theysystems
generate
generate is power
suitablenear
power
power for Simulink
near
near To validateenvironment
Simulink
Simulink formal results,
environment
environment using
using
using Simpower
simulation
Simpower
Simpower System
is carried
System
System out tools.
in Matlab
tools.
tools. All
All
All
the
feeding
the loads,
loads,isolated which
which eliminates
sites, in
eliminates addition the
the need
they
need to run
generate
to run high-voltage
power
high-voltage near results
Simulink
results
results show
show
show that
environment
that
that the
the
the controller
using
controller
controller Simpower realizes
realizes
realizes System the
the
the prescribed
tools.
prescribed
prescribed All
the loads, which eliminates the need to run high-voltage
transmission
the loads, which
transmission
transmission lines
lines through
lineseliminates
through the
through rural
ruralneed
rural and
andto urban
and landscapes objectives.
landscapes
run high-voltage
urban
urban landscapes results
objectives.
objectives. show that the controller realizes the prescribed
(Thounthong
(Thounthong et
transmission al,
al, 2011).
etlines through
2011). Because
Because rural ofofandfuel
fuel cell
cell low
urban output This
This study
output objectives.
landscapes
low This study is
study is organized
is organized as
organized as follows;
as follows; in
follows; in section
in section II
section II we
II we present
we present an
present an
an
(Thounthong et al, 2011). Because of fuel cell low output
voltage,
(Thounthong a
voltage, aa DC-DC DC-DCet al,
DC-DC converter converter
2011).
converter is is
Because necessary
of
is necessary
necessary to fuelto step
cell
to step
step up up
low the
up the DC
output
the DCDC overview overview
This study
overview of of
is the
of the studied
organized
the studied as system.
studied system.follows;
system. In In
in section
section
In section III III
II we the
III the
the cascade
present
cascade an
voltage, cascade
bus
voltage,voltage
bus voltage
bus a
voltage in in
DC-DC order
in order
order to to match
converter
to match
match the the
is load
necessary
the load requirement
to
load requirement step
requirement (Benyahia (Benyahia
up the DC boost
overview
boost converter
of
converter the is
is modelled.
studied
modelled. system.
(Benyahia boost converter is modelled. Section IV is devoted to design Section
Section In IV
IV is
section
is devoted
III
devoted the to
to design
cascade
design
et
busal, 2015). an adaptive controller for
for the converter. In
In section V
V the
et
et al, 2015).inThus,
al,voltage
2015). orderaaatoconventional
Thus,
Thus, match the load
conventional
conventional boost
boost
boost converter
requirement
converter(Benyahia
converter is
is mostly
is mostly an
mostly boost
an converter
adaptive
adaptive is modelled.
controller
controller for the
theSection
converter.
converter.IV is devoted
In section
section to design
V the
the
used.
et
used. al, However,
2015).
However, Thus, when
when a a high
conventional
a high output
output voltage
boost
voltage is
converter
is required
is
required by
mostly
by a
a control
an
control law
adaptive
law is
is validated
controller
validated by
for
by numeric
the
numeric simulation.
converter.
simulation. In A
A conclusion
section V
conclusion the
used. However, when a high output voltage is required by a control law is validated by numeric simulation. A conclusion
load,
used.
load, a
a cascade
However,
cascade boost
when
boost converter
a high
converter is
output
is more
more suitable
voltage
suitable is since
required
since it
it has
by
has a
a and
control
and a
a reference
law
reference is list
list end
validated
end the
by
the paper.
numeric
paper. simulation. A conclusion
load, a cascade boost converter is more suitable since it has a and a reference list end the paper.
better
betteravoltage
load,
better cascadegain
voltage
voltage boost
gain
gain than
than
than the
the boost
converter
the boost
boost is converter
more suitable
converter
converter (Ndtoungou
since it has
(Ndtoungou
(Ndtoungou et
et al,
et al,a and a reference list2.
al, end the paper.
2012).
better voltage
2012). Indeed,
Indeed,gain for a
for than same output
the output voltage
boost converter the duty
(Ndtoungou ratio
ratio etof
ofal,aaa 2. SYSTEM
2. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
SYSTEM OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
2012). Indeed, for aa same
same output voltage the
voltage the duty ratio
duty of 2. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
conventional
2012).
conventional
conventional Indeed,boost boost
for ais
boost is higher
issame
higher
higher outputthan those
than voltage
than those of
those of a cascade
oftheaa duty
cascade
cascade boost,
ratioboost,
of a The
boost, The system
The system
system under under consideration,
consideration, as
under consideration, as depicted
depicted in in fig.
fig. 1, 1, is
is
as depicted in fig. 1, is
this, relatively,
conventional
this, relatively,
relatively, increases increases
boost is
increases thermal thermal
higher than
thermal stresses stresses
those
stresses in in
of the
a
in the boost
cascade
the boost switch
boost,
switch The
boost switch comprised
systemof
comprised of a
ofunder fuel cell interfaced
fuelconsideration, with
as with
depicted a cascade boost
in fig. boost1, is
this, comprised aa fuel cell interfaced
cell interfaced with aa cascade
cascade boost
(Ramos
this,
(Ramos
(Ramos et
et al,
relatively,
et al, 2008).
al, increases thermal stresses in the boost switch comprised
2008).
2008). converter
converter (CBC) of a on
(CBC) fuelthe
on DC
thecell bus.
bus. An
DCinterfaced An inverterwith ais
inverter connected
iscascade
connected On
boost
On
converter (CBC) on the DC bus. An inverter is connected On
This
(Ramos
This paper
et
paper al,studies
2008).
studies a
a nonlinear
nonlinear controller
controller for
for a
a two
two stage
This paper studies a nonlinear controller for a two stage the DC link to provide alternate current to feed houses On
stage the
the DC
converter
DC link
(CBC)
link to
to provide
on the
provide DCalternate
bus.
alternate An current
inverter
current to
to feed
is houses
connected
feed houses or
or
or
cascade
This boost
paper converter.
studies a It is
nonlinear shown that
controller the transfer
for a function
two stage industrial
cascade boost converter. It is shown that the transfer function industrial loads. We suppose that, the fuel cell is involved or
cascade boost converter. It is shown that the transfer function the DC
industrial loads.
link
loads.to We
provide
We suppose
supposealternate that,
that, the
current
the fuel
fuel cell
to
cell is
feed
is involved
houses
involved in
in
in
from
cascade
from the
the duty
boost
duty ratio
converter.
ratio to
to the
the Itfirst
is
first inductor
shown
inductor thatcurrent,
the
current, is
transfer
is a
a minimum
function
minimum a
a
from the duty ratio to the first inductor current, is a minimum a distributed energy system and it is considered as the main distributed
industrial
distributed loads.energy
energy We system
suppose
system and
andthat,it
it is
the
is considered
fuel cell
considered is as the
involved
as the main
mainin
phase
from
phase transfer
the duty
transfer function
ratio
functionto the (Ramos
first
(Ramos et
inductor
et al,
al, 2008).
current,
2008). isTherefore,
a minimum
Therefore, a
phase transfer function (Ramos et al, 2008). Therefore, a source, it supplies loads when the demanded power has aaa
a source,
a it
distributed
source, it supplies
energy
supplies loads
system
loads when
whenand the
it
the is demanded
considered
demanded power
as
power the has
main
has
current mode
mode controller function is designed et using Lyapunov stability
stabilitya slow dynamics. Otherwise, aaa storage device
phase
currenttransfer
current mode controller
controller is(Ramos
is designed
designed al, 2008).
using
using Lyapunov
Lyapunov Therefore,
stability source,
slow
slow it supplies
dynamics.
dynamics. loads when
Otherwise,
Otherwise, the demanded
storage
storage device can
device power
can
can assist
assist
assisthasthe
thea
the
technique
current mode
technique
technique in
in order
in order
controller
order to regulate
is designed
to regulate
to regulate the output
the output
the output voltage.
using voltage.
Lyapunov
voltage. Moreover,
stability slow
Moreover,
Moreover, fuel
fuel cellcell
cell when
dynamics. the
when Otherwise, loads
the loads require
loads require a storage
require transient
device or
transient or fluctuating
canfluctuating
or assist the
fluctuating
fuel when the transient
the
the control
the controlinlaw
technique
control order
law
law is
is based
is based
based on
on aaa high
to regulate
on high
high gain
gain observer
the output
gain observer
observer estimating
voltage. Moreover,
estimating fuel
estimating power.
power. cellTypically,
when the
Typically, storage
loadsdevises
storage requireare
devises are connected
transient
connected or on the
the DC
fluctuating
on DC
power. Typically, storage devises are connected on the DC
thethe unknown
control
unknown converter lawconverter
is based
converter load loadon current.
a
load current. high
current. gain observer estimating link
power. through
link throughTypically,
through back back
back boostboost
storage converter
devises
boost converter
converter (BBC) (BBC)
are and
connected
(BBC) and and the the onsharing
the sharing the DC
sharing of
of
the unknown link of
Many
the
Many researchers
unknown
researchers converter are
are studied
load
studied current.the
the control
control of
of cascade
cascade boost
boost
Many researchers are studied the control of cascade boost the required power between sources is carried out by a power the
link
the required
through
required power
back
power between
boost
between sources
converter
sources is
(BBC)
is carried
carriedand out
the
out by
by a power
sharing
a power of
converters,
Many
converters, researchers for
for instance,
are
instance, in
studied
in (Ramos
the
(Ramos et
control
et al,
al, of2008)
cascade
2008) a
a linear
boost
linear
converters, for instance, in (Ramos et al, 2008) a linear management system. In this paper we focuse on controlling management
the required
management system.
power
system. In
between
In this
this paper
sources
paper we
is
we focuse
carried
focuse on
out
on controlling
by a power
controlling
controller for for
for aaainstance,
three-stage cascade converter around an the
converters,
controller
controller for three-stage
three-stage in (Ramoscascade etconverter
cascade al, 2008)around
converter a linear
around an the cascade
an management
the cascade system.
cascade boost
boost In
boost converter.
this paperIt
converter.
converter. It weis
It is composed
is focuse
composed
composed by
by two
on controlling
by two
two
controller for a three-stage cascade converter around an
2405-8963 © 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. the cascade boost converter. It is composed by two
Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control.
10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.12.627
92 Abdelouahad Tahri et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 52-29 (2019) 91–96

Fig. 1. Fuel cell based power conversion system

inductances L1 and L2, two capacitors C1 and C2, three current. That is, the controller must achieve the following
diodes D1,D2 and D3 and the key element which is the objectives
switch K.  The converter output voltage must be regulated to a
3. CASCADE BOOST CONVERTER MODELING wanted value Vbus in spite of the load and line
changes.
The control of the converter switch is performed according  The closed loop system must be asymptotically
the pulse width modulation (PWM), where the duty ratio is stable.
considered as the control variable. The cascade boost
 The estimated values of the converter output current
converter is assumed to operate at high switching frequency
must be sufficiently close to the true values.
under the continuous conduction mode. Consequently, it can
be given a low frequency space average model (Belhaj et al, 4.2 Cascade boost control law
2017). In order to distinguish the state variables they are
denoted according Table 1 In order to deal with the first objective, in the first view we
think to feedback the output voltage, however , the transfer
dx1  (1   ) v fc
 x3  (1a) function from control input  to the output variable vc 2
dt L1 L1
presents zero dynamics in the right half plan and, in this
dx2 (1   ) 1 situation, it’s hard to stabilize the system (Raymond et al,
 x4  x3 (1b)
dt L2 L1 1988). Therefore, to compensate for this drawback we resort
to a multi-loop current control mode by sensing the fuel cell
dx3 (1   ) 1
 x1  x2 (1c) current and the output voltage. For this purpose, we introduce
dt C1 C1 the following error
dx 4 (1   ) I
 x2  o (1d) e  x1  I fcref . (3a)
dt C2 C2
The fuel cell current reference I fcref is derived from the
The signal  is the time averaging function over switching
periods of the binary input signal u of the single switch; it’s energy balance principle applied to the converter, then based
called the duty ratio. And it’s considered as the control on Fig. 1, we obtain
variable of the system. The system is considered as bilinear Vbusio
with respect of the input u (Belhaj et al, 2017). Thus, one can I fcref  . (3b)
states that the system (1a-d) is nonlinear, since the state v fc
equations depend on the control variable  . The output
variable is set, for convenience, to y  x2 .
Table 1. average Model Variables
4. CASCADE BOOST CONTROLLER DESIGN
Model
Physical variable
Variable
4.1 Controller objectives FC current i fc x1

The fuel cell V-I characteristic is detailed in fig. 3, it shows L2 Inductor Current i 2 x2
that fuel cell voltage is nonlinear function versus the current C1 capacitor voltage vc1 x3
and it decreases drastically when the current rises. Typically, C 2 capacitor voltage v c 2 x4
a power supply must act as a voltage source, this is the reason
for inserting a converter between the fuel cell and the DC Converter output current io Io

bus. Besides, the converter controller accounts for the system Average of converter binary control

nonlinearities and current load uncertainties. Moreover, the input u
control law involves the estimate of the converter output
 Abdelouahad Tahri et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 52-29 (2019) 91–96 93

The factor  represents the converter efficiency.  (t ) T

According to (1a) the error dynamics is  (t )  [0, ] (9c)
C2
 (1   ) v fc and
e  x3   I fcref . (4) T
L1 L1 1  u 
 ( v, s )   s,0 . (9d)
This suggest the following control Law  C2 
L1 v fc Note that  (v, s) is Lipschitz; s and  (t ) are bounded since
  1 (ce   I fcref ) (5)
x3 L1 they are in relation with the fuel cell current.
According to (Tahri et al (2015 a)) one can get the following
where c  0 is a design parameter. high gain observer
Indeed, substitute  in (4) yields
zˆ  Azˆ   (v, s)  1S 1C T (Czˆ  y) (10a)
e  ce . (6)
where
Consider the quadratic function
1 0
1 S 1C T  [2,1]T and     1  (10b)
V  e2 (7a) 0  
2
Its derivative along (6) is then  is an observer gain parameter.
From (10a-b) we obtain the estimation dynamics of the
V  ce 2 (7b) current io .
One can state that V is a Lyapunov function, therefore The 
iˆo   C2 ~
x4 (11a)
error e vanishes exponentially (Khalil, 1996). Consequently,
the fuel cell current converge to its reference I fcref . where
On other hand, according (3b) the current reference ~
x4  x4  xˆ 4 (11b)
I fcref depends on the converter output current io which is
and
assumed to be slowly varying as we should take
consideration of fuel cell power slope limit. In addition, 1 iˆ
although this current is measurable it is of interest to estimate xˆ 4  x 2  o  2 ~
x4 . (11c)
C dc C dc
its values instead of using a current sensor, because it may

happen that a sensor failure deteriorates measurement Therefore, using the output current estimate io and (3b) the
accuracy. Therefore, using a current observer can improve
fuel cell current reference becomes
system cost effectiveness and reliability. Such observer is
designed in the following subsection. Vbusiˆo
I fcref  . (12)
4.3 Design of a high gain observer of the output current io. v fc

The observer is derived from the state equation (1d) and the At this point, we are ready to summarize the main results of
this study in the following proposition.
additional equation io   (t ) . Accounting for fuel cell
Proposition. Consider the distributed energy system
dynamics we assume that  (t )   , where  is a given real modelled by (1a-d) in close loop through the control law (5)
number. with a sensorless measurement of the converter output
current variable (11a) used in the outer loop (12), one can
dx 4 (1   ) i has the following features
 x2  o (8a)
dt C2 C2  The state variable x 4 is regulated to the voltage
io   (t ) (8b) reference Vbus despite of the output current and
y  x4 (8c) input voltage changes.
 The estimated value of the output current io can be
io made as close as needed to its true value: the larger
Putting z1  x4 , z 2  we get the compact form of (8a-c)
C2  the better estimation quality of io (11a).
 The closed loop defined by equations(1a-d), (5) and
z  Az   (v, s)   (t ) (9a) (12) is globally asymptotically stable (7a-b). 
y  Cz (9b)
with
0 1
z  [ z1 , z 2 ] , v   , A    , C  [1,0] , s  x2 ,
 0 0
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5. VALIDATION BY SIMULATION
Table 2. characteristics of the controlled system
The controller is validated by simulation using Matlab
Sympower System tool as indicated by fig. 2. The DC bus Parameter Symbol Value
reference is set to a constant value Vbus=110V. The Design parameters c 8000
parameter of the system and the design parameters are given  7.2e6
in Table 2. The fuel cell is of type PEMFC 1.26 KW- Inductances L1 , L2 4.7mH
Vmax=84V-Imax=100A, its characteristic is shown in Fig.3.
Capacitors C1 , C 2 300F
In fig. 4. the load current is subject of a succession of filtered
Switching frequency fs 20 kHz
steps according to the power fuel cell limited slope. In this
case, the estimated current is plotted in the same figure; it is
shown that the both curves are sufficiently close.
Figure 5. assesses the control law (5) in a way that it shows
how the fuel cell current tracks its reference I fcref . Indeed,
the both variables trajectories are undistinguished when the
converter load current changes.
Figure 6. Illustrates that although the load current variations
(see fig. 5), the output voltage is sufficiently regulated to the
desired value, namely Vbus=110V. The control input is also
plotted in this figure. It is important to note that, due to the
constant converter efficiency adopted in this study,
namely   0.9 , combined with the current estimation error
in equation (12), the absolute difference between the output
voltage vc2 and the desired value Vbus does not exceed 10%
when the fuel cell power varies from Pfcmin=200W to
Pfcmax=2KW.
Figure 7. exhibits the trajectories of the states variables il2
and vc1 that converge to constant steady states values.
Figure 8. shows that fuel cell current and voltage are subject
to larges variations when changes occur in current load. That
illustrates the important role of the controller in the situation
where variation occurs in input voltage and output current. Fig. 2. Simulation model for the controlled system
Figure 9. illustrates the tracking capability of the controller
when Vbus subject to successive changes. It is clear that the
cascade boost output voltage vc2 follows the reference signal.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The problem of controlling a dc-dc cascade boost converter
in context of a fuel cell based distributed energy system is
addressed. The main objective is to regulate the dc bus
voltage to a given constant value, despite of the load
variation. The system is given an averaging model which is
used to design the control law that calculates the converter
switch duty ratio in the inner current loop. The outer loop
elaborates the current reference as a function of the wanted
voltage. The approach is based on the lyapunuv stability
technique. Furthermore, the current mode control involves
the output current that is estimated instead of to be measured,
as a measure to improve the system reliability. All state
variables converge to constant values which are in relation
with the wanted voltage. Theoretical studies show that the
closed loop system is globally asymptotically stable and
numerical simulation illustrate that the designed controller
meets all prefixed objectives.

Fig. 3. Fuel cell V-I characteristic

 Abdelouahad Tahri et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 52-29 (2019) 91–96 95

Fig. 4. Converter output current changes and estimator

behavior

Fig. 7. State variable il2 and vc1 trajectories under output

current changes

Fig. 5. Average current mode control method

assessement under output current changes

Fig. 8. Fuel cell current and voltage trajectories under

output current changes

Fig. 6. Voltage regulator behavior in presence of load Fig. 9. Voltage regulator effect in presence of voltage
current variation reference variation
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