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Modeling and simulation of fuel cell electric vehicles

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Proceedings of the 15th International Middle East Power Systems Conference (MEPCON’12), Alexandria University,
Egypt, December 23-25, 2012, Paper ID 225.
Modeling and Simulation of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles
Mazen Abdel-Salam, Adel Ahmed and Ahmed Elnozahy
Electrical Engineering Department
Assiut University
Assiut, Egypt
Mazen2000as@yahoo.com
Abstract - The objective of this paper is to develop a model
for a fuel cell hydrogen vehicle driven by a brushless DC motor.
A two leg directly coupled interleaved boost converter is used to
power the motor from the fuel cell through a three-phase
inverter. The studied system of the fuel-cell vehicle is designed
and simulated using the commercial PSIM9 software. Due the
presence of power converters, different harmonic components
exist in the system, especially in the input voltage/current to the
motor. The ripple contents of current and voltage at the fuel cell
output and the motor input are estimated. An active power filter
is designed in order to reduce the current and voltage harmonics
of brushless DC motor. The instantaneous active and reactive
current components id-iq control method is used in this study to
lessen the harmonic contents at the input of the Brushless DC
motor to the standard values.
Index Terms – Fuel cell, BLDC motor, Interleaved boost
converter, Active power filter and Hybrid vehicles.
I. INTRODUCTION
Fossil fuels including coal, oil, and gas, which are heavily
used as energy sources, can cause air pollution and greenhouse
gas problems. A recent study [1] showed that about 18% of
CO2 (carbon dioxide), being a greenhouse gas, is emitted by
motor vehicles. The development of fuel cell vehicles is very
important to environment and even economical, especially for
a soaring oil price at present. The fuel cell system is widely
regarded as one of the most promising energy sources.
Fuel cell vehicles can be powered directly by hydrogen or
other liquid fuels such as gasoline, ethanol or methanol with
an onboard chemical processor. Most analysts agree that
hydrogen is the preferred fuel in terms of reducing vehicle
complexity, but one common perception is that the cost of a
hydrogen infrastructure would be excessive. According to this
conventional wisdom, the automobile industry must therefore
develop complex onboard fuel processors (reformers) to
convert methanol, ethanol or gasoline to hydrogen [2].
Among the various topologies of DC–DC converters,
interleaved boost converter (IBC) or (two leg IBC), has been
proposed as a suitable interface for fuel cells to convert low
voltage high current input into a high voltage low current
output. The advantages of interleaved boost converter
compared to the classical boost converter are low input current
ripple, high efficiency, faster transient response, reduced
electromagnetic emission and improved reliability [3].
The application of active power filters (APFs) for mitigating
harmonic currents and compensating for reactive power of the
nonlinear load was proposed. The theory and development of
APFs have become very popular and have attracted much
Ahmad Eid
Electrical Engineering Department
Aswan University
Aswan 81542, Egypt
ahmadeid@ieee.org
attention. The APF appears to be a viable solution for
controlling harmonics-associated problems. In operation, the
APF injects equal but opposite distortion as well as absorbing
or generating reactive power, thereby controlling the
harmonics and compensating for reactive power of the
connected load [4].
This paper develops a model for a fuel cell hydrogen vehicle
driven by a Brushless DC Motor (BLDCM). A two leg
directly coupled Interleaved Boost Converter (IBC) is used to
power the motor from the fuel cell through a three-phase
inverter. The studied system of the Fuel-Cell Vehicle (FCV) is
designed and simulated using the commercial PSIM9
software. The ripple contents of current and voltage at the fuel
cell output and the motor input are estimated. An APF is
designed in order to reduce the current and voltage harmonics
of BLDC motor. The instantaneous active and reactive current
components id-iq control method is used in this study to lessen
the harmonic contents at the input of the BLDCM to the
standard values.
II. MODELING OF FUEL CELL VEHICLE COMPONENTS
The FCV system consists of a fuel cell connected to a
BLDC motor through an IBC and a 3-phase inverter as shown
in Fig. 1. The IBC is controlled using PI controller to provide
a higher DC voltage Vb from the available fuel cell output
voltage Vfc. The input control signals of the IBC controller is
the IBC output voltage Vb and the output current of the fuel
cell Ifc. A three-phase inverter is controlled to provide the
required input voltage for the BLDC motor which, in turn,
runs following a certain speed profile. To reduce the harmonic
contents of the voltage applied to the BLDC motor, an APF is
connected at the motor terminals as shown in Fig. 1. The APF
is controlled using the id-iq control method which provides
efficient way to get rid of the harmonics resulted from the
converters and inverters in the vehicle system. Such control of
the APF is achieved through the motor current (Im ), filter
current (If ) and the DC voltage (Vdc ) as shown in Fig. 1. Each
component of the FCV will be explained in the following
subsections.
A. Fuel Cell Model
A proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell consists
mainly of two electrodes (cathode and anode) and an
electrolyte in between. Oxygen (from cathode side) and
Hydrogen (from anode side) are needed for completion of the
reaction. The electrodes are usually made flat and the
electrolyte is a thin layer to increase the contact area. The
structure of the electrode is porous so that both the electrolyte
from one side and the gas from the other can penetrate it. This m is constant expressed in V.
is to give the maximum possible contact between the n is constant expressed in cm2 mA−1 .
electrode, the electrolyte and the gas. When an external load is ∆Vconc can be modeled as a resistance 𝑅𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐 as shown in Fig.
connected to the fuel cell terminals voltage drops take place to 2 [1].
express activation, ohmic and concentration losses [1]. Equation (4) is an empirical one [5] which, gives a good fit to
fuel cell concentration voltage drop with carefully chosen of
51 Vdc 212Vdc 150Vac
Fuel cell IBC 3- Phase BLDC constants m and n. Then, the fuel cell terminal voltage (Vcell )
Vfc Vb
inverter
Im Motor is expressed as [5]:
If Vcell = E − ∆Vact − ∆Vohm − ∆Vconc (5)
Where,
Sa, Sb and Sc
Control signals
E is the cell open-circuit voltage at standard pressure and
temperature expressed in V.
PI Controller −∆h f
Ifc Vb
APF
E= (6)
2F
Vdc
Where, F is Faraday constant, the charge on one mole of
electrons, 96,485 Coulombs. ∆hf is the change of enthalpy of
formation per mole (= −241.83kj/mol) for water in a steam
APF control
If circuit
Im

Fig. 1 Proposed FCV system. form and called lower heating value , and ∆hf = −285.84kj/
mol for water in a liquid form and called higher heating
1) Activation Voltage Drop: Activation voltage drop value.
(∆Vact ) is due to the slowness of the reactions taking place in According to the above output voltage equations 1-4, an
the cell, which can be minimized by maximizing the catalyst equivalent circuit [1] is depicted for the fuel cell, as shown in
contact area for reactions. ∆Vact is expressed as [5]: Fig. 2.
i +i
∆Vact = A ln( fci n ) (1)
o Ifc
Rohmic
Where,
A is constant expressed in V.
in is the internal current density related to internal current Ract

losses expressed in mAcm−2 (the importance of the internal +

C Vcell
current density is much less in case of higher temperature Rconc -

operation with no effect on the fuel cell efficiency).

ifc is the output current density given in mAcm−2 .
io is the exchange current density related to activation
losses expressed in mAcm−2 .
+
- E

The activation voltage drop of eqn. (1) after removing in is Fig. 2 Equivalent circuit of PEM fuel cell.
rearranged to
i In the above circuit, C is the equivalent capacitor due to the
∆Vact = A ln( ifc ) = A ln(ifc ) − A ln(io ) (2)
o double-layer charging effect.
∆Vact can be modeled as a resistance 𝑅𝑎𝑐𝑡 as shown in Fig. 2 The relation between the fuel cell stack voltage and current
[1]. density is [1]:
2) Resistive Voltage Drop: Resistive voltage drop i +i
Vstack = N E − A ln fci n − ifc + in r − mexp nifc (7)
(∆Vohm ) is caused by current flow through the resistance of o
the whole electrical circuit including the membrane and Where, N denotes number of cells in stack. The later is given
various interconnections, with the biggest contributor being as [1]. Because the second half of eqn. (2) is a constant, one
the membrane [1]. Effective water management to keep it can deal with this by postulating a real, practical, open circuit
hydrated reduces its ohmic loss. ∆Vohm is expressed as [1]: voltage Eoc that is given by the equation [5]:
∆Vohm = (ifc + in )r (3) Eoc = E + A ln(io ) (8)
Where, Note that Eoc will always be less than E because io , being
r is the area-specific resistance related to resistive losses small, will generate negative logarithms. If we substitute
expressed in Ωcm−2 . equations (2) and (8) into eqn. (7) and removein , we obtain
∆Vohm can be modeled as a resistance 𝑅𝑜ℎ𝑚𝑖𝑐 as shown in [5].
Fig. 2 [1]. Vstack = N Eoc − A ln ifc − (ifc )r − mexp(nifc ) (9)
3) Mass Transport or Concentration Voltage Drop: The parameters of PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) of eqn. (9) are
Mass transport or concentration voltage drop ( ∆Vconc ) is given in Table I [5]. There is a difficulty to simulate the fuel
caused by gas concentration, which changes at the surface of cell according to eqn. (9) because it includes LOG and EXP
the electrodes. ∆Vconc is expressed as [1]: Functions. Therefore, a curve fitting command in a software
∆Vconc = mexp(nifc ) (4) program in MATLAB package was used to fit the cell I-V
Where, characteristic as expressed by eqn. (9). Fig. 3 shows good
fitting of (I-V) characteristic expressed by equation (10), and C. Two Leg Interleaved Boost Converter
the different voltage drops of fuel cell, which are described by To minimize the ripples, an IBC has been proposed as an
eqns. (1), (3) and (4). interface for fuel cells to reduce the source current ripples. The
Vfc = AIfc2 + BIfc + C (10) IBC before modification is as shown in Fig. 5, where the fuel
Where A = 7 ∗ 10−4 , B = −0.0129 and C = 1.0398 cell current and voltage waveforms contain high ripples, as
shown in Figs. 6 and 7 respectively.
Table I
L1 D1
A Single PEMFC Model Parameters. I1

Constant Ballard Mark V PEMFC at 70◦C L2

D2

E (V) 1.031
r (kΩcm−2 ) 2.45×10−4 Vfc
Load
Vo

S1 S2 C
A (V) 0.03
2.11×10−5
G2
m (V) G1

n (cm2 mA−1 ) 8×10−3

Fuel Cell (I-V) characteristic

1.2

Activation Control circuit

Equation (9) Curve
1.1 voltage drop
Equation (10) Curve Fig. 5 Two leg interleaved boost converter.
Fuel Cell Voltage (V)

1
Ohmic voltage
0.9 drop (linear)

0.8 Mass transport or concentration

voltage drop
0.7

0.6

0.5
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Fuel Cell Current (mAcm-2)
Fig. 3 Fuel Cell (I-V) characteristic according to eqns. (9) and (10).

B. Proposed Fuel Cell Modelling using PSIM

The fuel cell is simulated using the PSIM9 package, as
shown in Fig. 4, where the fuel cell voltage (Vfc ) depends on
fuel cell current (Ifc ). Fig. 6 Fuel cell current with time-scale expanded (before insertion of Lf
andCf ).
(5)
Ifc A

Vfc
Math. K C/P + (4) V To IBC
-
(1) (2) (3)

Fig. 4 Fuel cell model.

The proposed fuel cell model consists of:

 Block (1) math function block: represents the fuel
cell voltage equation (10).
 Block (2) gain block: represents the number of fuel
cell (N).
 Block (3) control-power interface block: passes a Fig. 7 Fuel cell voltage with time-scale expanded (before insertion of Lf
control circuit value to the power circuit. It is used as andCf ).
a buffer between the control and the power circuit. To improve the performance of IBC, the inductor (𝐿𝑓 ) and the
 Block (4) current controlled voltage source. capacitor (𝐶𝑓 ) are inserted as shown in Fig. 8. A pronounced
 Block (5) current sensor. reduction of current and voltage ripples is observed as shown
in Figs. 9 and 10 respectively. The parameters of simulation
for this system are defined in Appendix I.
 L1 D1
I1 Vb
Lf
250
L2
D2
200

Vfc Vo 150

Load
Cf S1 S2 C
100
G1 G2

50

-50

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2

Time (s)

Control circuit
Fig. 11 IBC output Voltage.
Fig. 8 Modified IBC. Ia

20

The approximate value of current and voltage ripples in Figs. 10

6 and 7 before insertion of Lf and Cf are 5A and 0.07V (the 0

difference between maximum and minimum ripple values) -10

respectively, while, after insertion of Lf and Cf the values drop -20

to 0.004A and 0.044Vas shown in Fig. 9 and 10. The output Vo

300

voltage (Vb ) from the IBC after being boosted is shown in Fig. 200

11, where the fuel cell voltage (Vfc ) is boosted from 51V to 100

212V, approximately. -100

-200

-300
III. HARMONICS MITIGATION OF BLDCM 0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2
Time (s)

Due to the power electronics circuitry, the input supply Fig. 12 Current and voltage waveform before using the APF.
Ia
voltage to the motor contains various harmonics components 20

[6]. According to the system configuration shown in Fig. 1 the 15

input voltage (Vo ) to the load (BLDCM with controller) is 10

boosted to 212V approximately. The line voltage, phase 5

current and associated harmonics of the BLDCM are plotted 0

with FFT analysis as shown in Figs. 12 and 13. 200

Vo

To reduce harmonics at the AC load terminal bus, an APF is 150

shunt connected at the load terminals as shown in Fig. 1. 100

50

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 13 FFT analysis of current and voltage waveform before using the APF.

Fig. 9 Fuel cell current with time-scale expanded (after insertion of Lf andCf ).
The APF cancels out the harmonic currents and leaves the
fundamental current component to be provided by the power
system [7]. The APF in general consists of a power circuit,
smoothing inductors (Lf1 , Lf2 ), smoothing high-frequency filter
capacitorsCf , a DC capacitor, Cdc (Fig. 14) and a control circuit
(Fig. 15). The power circuit for a three-phase six-pulse
inverter is shown in Fig. 14. The DC capacitor located in the
DC bus of the voltage-source inverter serves as an energy
storage element. The filter capacitance is used to mitigate the
high-frequency ripple components and thus reducing the
switching stress on the APF switches [8]. The APF with
parameters listed in Table II is connected in shunt at point of
common coupling (PCC) as shown in Fig. 14 and controlled
using the instantaneous active and reactive current component
id − iq method as shown in Figs. 15 and 16 [9].

A. APF Control Method

The instantaneous active and reactive current component
theory (p–q theory) is widely used in APF control circuitry to
Fig. 10 Fuel cell voltage with time-scale expanded (after insertion of Lf calculate the desired compensation current [10-14] as shown
andCf ). in Fig. 15.
 Table II
APF and its control circuit parameters
Smoothing filter parameters
Filter inductance, 𝐿𝑓1 , 𝐿𝑓2 2 , 0.5 mH
Filter capacitance, 𝐶𝑓 0.005uf
Filter DC capacitor, 𝐶𝑑𝑐 3mF
Voltage regulator system parameters:
Proportional gain for voltage regulator 0.0071
Tim constant for voltage regulator 0.001
DC reference voltage, 𝑉𝑑𝑐 300 V
Gate driver system parameters:
Fig 14 APF schematic diagram. Proportional gain for gate pulses 0.01
Tim constant for gate pulses 0.005
Switching frequency 5kHz
B. DC Voltage Regulation and Harmonic Current Triangular wave peak to peak voltage 12V
Generation System Transformation angle (θ) parameters:
As illustrated in Fig. 16, Imd and Imq are the measured Proportional gain (k) 0.1
Integral time constant 0.2
active and reactive motor current components which are
obtained from abc to dqo transformation block as shown in
C. Simulation Results
Fig. 15 [9]. A dc bus PI controller regulates the dc bus voltage
After connecting the APF (Fig. 14) at the PCC with the
Vdc to its reference valueVdcr , and compensates for the inverter
control circuit (Fig. 15) to the FCV system (Fig. 1), the phase
losses. The dc bus controller generates a fundamental
current at the load side (ima ), the phase current at the source
harmonic direct current Idh to provide the real power transfer
required to regulate dc bus voltage and compensate the side (isa ), and the line voltage (vlo ) are shown in Fig. 18. The
inverter losses. The reactive power flow is controlled by the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of source current is 7.22%
fundamental harmonic quadrature current of positive and 4.01% for current at motor side as shown in Fig. 19
sequenceIqh . However, considering that the primary end of the against 50.65% for the THD of motor current before using the
APF. Therefore, the APF reduced the THD of BLDC motor
APF is simply to eliminate current harmonics caused by
current from 50.56% to 4.01%. Fig. 20 shows the three phase
nonlinear loads, the current Iqh is set to zero as shown in Fig. motor currents (ima , imb and imc ), and the three phase source
16. The harmonic reference currents Idr and Iqr are currents (isa , isb and isc ), which are harmonic free and the
transformed to Ifar , Ifbr , and Ifcr through dqo to abc injected APF currents(Ifa , Ifb , and Ifc ).
transformation block (Fig. 15). By comparing the harmonic
reference currents with actual filter currentsIfa , Ifb , and Ifc , the IV. CONCLUSIONS
gate pulses can be obtained through gate pulse generation 1- A fuel cell model is proposed where the I-V
system (Fig. 17). Adjusting the PI controller parameters and characteristic of the fuel cell is curve-fitted and
comparing the error signal by triangular wave source through simulated using PSIM9.
the comparator are sought to generate the gate pulses (𝑄1─𝑄6 ) 2- A two-leg interleaved boost converter is designed to
as shown in Fig. 17. reduce ripple content in fuel-cell output current and
voltage.
3-phase
Fuel
cell
IBC
IBC
inverter
BLDC
motor Speed
3- An APF filter is designed to mitigate the harmonic
sensor
content in the brushless DC motor input current and
Smoothing
filter
Ima,Imb,Imc K
voltage.
Vdc
Integrator
3-leg Vdc Vdcr PI Limiter
Cdc
inverter
Idh
g1-6
α.
Gate pulse
2 .
. generation Imd LPF Idr
Imdh
abc
Ifa, Ifb, Ifc
Ifar, Ifbr, Ifcr qd
Iqh=0
Imq Imd
abc
Imq LPF Iqr
qd Harmonic
current Imqh
Iqr Idr generation
Iqh=0
Imqh
Fig.16 DC voltage regulation and harmonic current generation circuit.
Imdh

DC voltagr
regulator Vdc
Idh

Vdcr

Fig. 15 APF controls circuit by using the instantaneous active and reactive
current component id − iq method.
 Parameter The value

Comparator
Ifar PI Limiter
Q1

Q4
N(no. of FC) 50
Ifa Cf (μF) 2000
Lf (mH) 6.5

Comparator
Ifbr PI Limiter
Q2
L1 ,L2 (IBC self inductance mH) 2
Ifb
Q5
Lm (IBC mutual inductance mH) 1
F(switching frequency Khz) 5

Comparator
Tl (load torque N.m )
Ifcr PI Limiter
Q3 10
Q6
PI controller parameters
Ifc
PI1 gain 0.99
Triangular wave source PI1 time constant 0.5
PI2 gain 0.09
Fig. 17 Gate driver system of APF 3-leg inverter. PI2 time constant 0.0004
Ima

10

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