IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 60, NO.

2, FEBRUARY 2011

433

Energy Management of a Fuel

Cell/Supercapacitor/Battery Power Source
for Electric Vehicular Applications
Majid Zandi, Alireza Payman, Jean-Philippe Martin, Serge Pierfederici,
Bernard Davat, Member, IEEE, and Farid Meibody-Tabar

AbstractThis paper presents an energy management method

in an electrical hybrid power source (EHPS) for electric vehicular
applications. The method is based on the flatness control technique
(FCT) and fuzzy logic control (FLC). This EHPS is composed
of a fuel cell system as the main source and two energy storage
sources (ESSs)a bank of supercapacitors (SCs) and a bank of
batteries (BATs)as the auxiliary source. With this hybridization,
the volume and mass of the EHPS can be reduced, because the
high energy density of BAT and high power density of SC are
utilized. In the proposed novel control strategy, the FCT is used
to manage the energy between the main and the auxiliary sources,
and the FLC is employed to share the power flow in the ESS
between the SC and the BAT. The power sharing depends on
the load power and the state of charge of the SC and the BAT.
EHPS is controlled by the regulation of the stored electrostatic
energy in the dc buses. The main property of this strategy is that
the energy management in the power source is carried out with
a single general control algorithm in different operating modes,
consequently avoiding any algorithm commutation. An EHPS test
bench has been assembled and equipped with a real-time system
controller based on a dSPACE. The experimental results validate
the efficiency of the proposed control strategy.
Index TermsBattery, dc/dc converter, electrical hybrid vehicle
(EHV), energy storage sources (ESSs), flatness control technique
(FCT) and energy management strategy (EMS), fuel cell (FC),
fuzzy logic control (FLC), supercapacitor (SC).

I. I NTRODUTION

NCREASING rapidly population and energy consumption

in the world, increasing oil and natural gas prices, and the
depletion of fossil fuels are justifiable reasons for using electrical hybrid vehicles (EHVs) instead of fossil-fuel vehicles.
The interest in developing the EHVs with clean and renewable
Manuscript received March 19, 2010; revised June 5, 2010 and
September 17, 2010; accepted October 6, 2010. Date of publication
November 11, 2010; date of current version February 18, 2011. The review
of this paper was coordinated by Dr. A. Khaligh.
M. Zandi, J.-P. Martin, S. Pierfederici, B. Davat, and F. Meibody-Tabar
are with the Groupe de Recherche en Electrotechnique et Electronique
de Nancy, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, University of
Nancy, 54516 Nancy, France (e-mail: Majid.Zandi@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr;
JeanPhilippe.Martin@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr;
Serge.Pierfederici@ensem.inplnancy.fr; Bernard.Davat@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr; farid.meibody-tabar@ensem.
inpl-nancy.fr).
A. Payman is with the Groupe de Recherche en Electrotechnique et Automatique du Havre, The University of Le Havre, 76600 Le Havre, France (e-mail:
alireza.payman@univ-lehavre.fr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TVT.2010.2091433

energy sources as a replacement for fossil-fuel vehicles has

therefore steadily increased. The EHVs are proposed as a
potential and attractive solution for transportation applications
to provide environmentally friendly operation with the usage of
clean and renewable energy sources. Furthermore, EHVs have
the advantage of high energy efficiency [1][3]. In the EHVs,
the fuel cell (FC) stack, battery bank (BAT), and supercapacitor
(SC) bank are usually used as clean energy sources. The FCs
and BATs are energy sources that directly convert the chemical
energy reaction into the electrical energy. Currently, FCs are
acknowledged as one of the promising technologies to meet
the future energy generation requirements. In contrast to BATs,
FCs generate electric energy, rather than storing it, and continue
to deliver the energy, as long as the fuel supply is maintained.
However, there are some well-known technical limitations to
FCs: They have a low efficiency in a low load demand, a slow
power transfer rate in transitory situations, and a high cost per
watt. This case is the reason for which FCs are not used alone in
the EHVs to satisfy the load demands, particularly during startup and transient events [4][6]. Furthermore, the association of
an FC and an energy source leads to a reduction of the hydrogen
consumption of the FC [7]. On the other hand, commercially
available BATs present some drawbacks such as low life cycle,
long recharging time, and low power densities, in spite of providing a significant high-energy density potential. In addition,
the performance of the BAT may greatly be affected by high
current discharges [2], [8]. In comparison with BATs and FCs,
SCs present a higher power density but a lower energy density
[9]. Consequently, a combination of a primary energy source
(PES; unidirectional energy source) such as an FC and one
or more secondary energy sources (SESs; bidirectional energy
sources) such as SCs and BATs, is usually used in EHVs to
satisfy the different energy requirements. In this combination,
the PES and the SES are sized for the continuous and transient
energy requirements, respectively. Therefore, the PES can be
sized to the average energy and not to the peak of the energy
demand [6], [10], and [11].
Currently, different combinations of the renewable sources
are proposed for EHV applications. Several published papers
have proposed the EHV with a FC and a BAT as the energy
storage source (ESS) [12][14]. In this case, a BAT may not
be a good choice as an ESS by reasons of a limited life cycle,
a high time response in transient state, low efficiency, a slow
charging time, and a lower power density than the SC [8]. The

0018-9545/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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Fig. 1. Schema of the electrical hybrid system for vehicular applications.

authors in [1], [15], and [16] have studied an EHV with a SC

as the ESS. As aforementioned, the energy density of SC is low
and may not help the PES in the extended transient state.
Therefore, a combination of a BAT and a SC seems to be
a better choice as the ESS, which not only provides a higher
power density but also increases the energy storage capability
of EHVs. Therefore, the volume and the mass of EHVs can be
reduced, and their lifetime may increase. Furthermore, the SC
and BAT can heat up the FC, provide power to the load when the
FC warms up, supply the peak powers of the load, and recover
the negative load power from braking energy. The hybridization
of the FC, BAT, and SC has been proposed in some papers,
with different energy management strategies (EMSs) [2], [5],
[17][22]. In [19], a FC and a BAT are used and sized for the
continuous load energy requirement, whereas a SC is chosen
as the ESS. As aforementioned, using this configuration, the
energy density of the ESS may not be sufficient in the extended
transient state.
The authors in [2], [3], and [23] have proposed an EMS in an
EHV based on the different dynamics of the FC, the BAT, and
the SC. More precisely, the load profile is decomposed during
a drive cycle and is distributed to the FC, the BAT, and the
SC according to their respective characteristics. Although, in
this strategy, the lifetime of different sources is significantly
increased, it does not necessarily lead to the most compact
energy sources.
In [5] and [19][22], an EMS based on fuzzy logic control
(FLC) has been used to control the energy distribution between
the FC, BAT, and SC EHVs. This method has not resulted in a
favored operation in [5] and [21], where the dc output voltage
is not well controlled. Another method has been used in [24]
with different algorithms such that, in each operating mode,
one of the control algorithms is applied. Hence, the algorithm
commutation is necessary when the operating mode changes,
which may lead to a chattering phenomenon when the system
operates near a border between two operating modes [25].
In this paper, a novel control strategy based on a combination of the flatness control technique (FCT) and the FLC is
developed and investigated in a FC/BAT/SC power source for

the EHV application. In the studied system, the FC is the main

source, and the BAT and the SC form the ESS to benefit the
aforementioned advantages of a BAT/SC combination as
the auxiliary source. The main property of this strategy is that
the system power flow in different operating modes is managed
with the same control algorithm (without any algorithm commutation). Because the FCT is well adapted in the applications
for which explicit trajectory planning is required, this method
is employed to control the energy distribution between the FC
and the ESS. More precisely, the power flow in the hybrid
system and the output voltage control is done by planning the
specific trajectories on the system output. On the other hand,
the energy sharing between the BAT and the SC in the ESS
is carried out by a FLC based on the load power, the SC
voltage, and the BAT voltage. The reasons for choosing the FLC
in EMS for ESS are to accommodate the intrinsic nonlinear
characteristics of the SC and BAT, to avoid the operation of
each power source ESS in its low-efficiency region, to ensure
dc-link output voltage regulation for any power demands, and
to build a comprehensive and intuitive control strategy.
To validate the EHV performance, a test bench has been assembled and equipped with a dSPACE platform as the real-time
controller. The implementation results are presented, which
prove the validity of the proposed approach.
II. S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION
There are a variety of converters connection topologies to
combine different power source devices and a load. The power
electronic solution must have low cost and be compact, flexible,
efficient, and reliable. It should also produce low electromagnetic interference and low acoustic noise [4], [21].
A parallel connection of the FC system and the ESS is usually
chosen through the dc/dc converters to increase the utilization
of system capabilities. Fig. 1 shows the schema of the studied
hybrid system for the vehicular applications. The hybrid system
is composed of two dc buses with the capacitors C1 (lower
voltage dc bus) and C2 (higher voltage dc bus). The first bus
(C1 ) has a variable voltage, which is directly connected to the

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435

FC, whereas the second bus (C2 ), which supplies the load,
has a controlled constant voltage. By controlling the energy
y1 of C1 (or its voltage v1 ), the energy exchange between
the FC, the ESS, and the load is managed. A bidirectional
dc/dc converter is used to boost the variable voltage v1 to
the constant output voltage V2 . The SC and the BAT are
connected to the variable dc bus (C1 ) and the constant bus
(C2 ), respectively, through the bidirectional dc/dc converters
(see Fig. 1). In each converter, the losses in the inductance (lsc ,
lb , and l2 in Fig. 1) are modeled by a resistor in series with the
inductance (rsc , rb , and r2 , respectively). These bidirectional
dc/dc converters allow the power to be delivered or absorbed
by the ESS, which leads to charging or discharging the SC and
the BAT.
Some authors have used another structure, where the SC is
connected to the output dc bus (C2 ). In [11], these structures are
studied and compared for a FC/SC hybrid system. In reality, the
choice of the best structure depends on the load variation profile
and the voltage levels of the dc buses. Note that the objective of
this paper is to investigate the proposed control strategy, which
can be applied to different structures for which the SC and the
BAT can be connected either to the variable or to the constant
dc buses.
In this paper, the cable inductance and the serial resistances
of the capacitors are neglected. In addition, the SC and the
BAT voltages are considered variable parameters, because their
capacitance values are very high, and their voltage variation
in time is slow. Furthermore, the dynamics of the current or
power loops are supposed to be widely faster than the energy or
voltage loop ones. Therefore, currents isc , ib , and i2 (see Fig. 1)
or powers Psc , Pb , and P2 are considered to perfectly follow
their respective references. Therefore, a two-order reduced
model can be defined, in which the dc bus voltages v1 and V2
will be the state variables of the system.
In the following section, the control strategy will be explained, and the flatness properties will be investigated in the
reduced order system.

(2)

III. C ONTROL S TRATEGY D ESCRIPTION

In this paper, a control strategy is proposed for the EHV
based on a combination of FCT and FLC. The FCT is used
to control the energy flow between the FC and the ESS, which
depends on the powers of the load, the ESS, and the FC. On
the other hand, the FLC is proposed to share the energy in the
ESS, between the SC and the BAT. The energy sharing is carried
out in the FLC with respect to the state of charge (SOC) of
the energy storage devices. More precisely, when the system
is faced to a load variation, the energy concerned to the ESS is
determined by the FCT, and the energy division between the SC
and the BAT is done by the FLC. In the following discussion,
the control strategy will be explained in detail.

A. FCT
Flat systems are a specific class of systems for which the
structure of the trajectories of the dynamics can completely

be characterized [28]. One major property of differential flat

systems is that all state and input vector components can
be expressed in terms of flat output components and a finite
number of its derivatives without integrating any differential
equation.
In differential algebra, a system is viewed as a differential
field by a set of variables (states and inputs). The system is said
to be differentially flat if an output vector can be found such that
the state vector and the input vector can be determined from
the components of the output vector without integration. More
precisely, if the system has a state vector x Rn and an input
vector u Rm , then the system is flat if an output vector y
Rm can be found of the form [11], [26][28]


(1)
y = x, u, u,
. . . , u(l)
such that


x = x y, y,
. . . , y (q)


u = u y, y,
. . . , y (q+1)

(3)

with rank() = m, rank(u ) = m, and rank(x ) = n.

An important specific of the flat systems is that the system
behavior can be predicted, even in the transient state, because
the control and state vector variables are functions of the output
vector of the system.
To investigate the flatness properties in the system, the electrostatic energies stored in output capacitor C2 (y2 ) and the total
electrostatic energies stored in C1 and C2 (ys ) are assumed as
the flat output vector components. The stored electromagnetic
energy in the inductors is supposed to be negligible in comparison with the electrostatic energies stored in the capacitors. The
output components y2 and ys are given as

y2 = 12 C2 V22 = (V2 )
(4)
ys = y1 + y2 = 12 C1 v12 + 12 C2 V22 = (v1 , V2 ).
Selecting the dc buses energies (y2 and ys ) as the flat output
vector components, the governing differential equations of the
system can be written in the form

y 2 = P2a + Pba PLoad
(5)
y s = P1 + Psca + P2a + Pba PLoad P2 .
Therefore, the state vector components of the system (v1 and
V2 ) are obtained as


v1 = 2(ys y2 ) = v (y2 , ys )
1
 C1
(6)
V = 2y2 = (y ).
2
V
2
2
C2
To determine the control variables of the system, it is mentioned that, in a flat system, the number of the control variables
is equal to the number of the output variables. Therefore, we
will have two control variables in the system. In this paper, the
power of converter 2 (P2 ) and the power of the ESS (Pst =
Psca + Pba ) is proposed as the control variables. Based on the

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 60, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2011

notations in Fig. 1, the system control vector components Pst

and P2 are calculated as


y 2 +Pload Pba +Pcon.2

P
=
2P
1

2
2
max
P2 max

= P 2 (ys , y2 , y 2 )
 2

P = y + P
+ r P2 P = (y , y , y , y )
st

load

v1

P st

(7)
where PCon.2 stands for the power losses in converter 2, and
P2 max represents the maximum power that can be delivered
by the variable dc bus, P2 max = v12 /(4r2 ). In (7), P1 can be
rewritten as P1 = v1 (vf v1 VD )/rf = P 1 (y2 , ys ). VD
represents the voltage drop on the diode placed between the FC
and C1 (see Fig. 1).
Therefore, the state variable and the control variable components of the system can be explained as functions of flat output
vector components and their derivatives. Therefore, the studied
system is a flat one, and the behavior of the state and control
variables is prescribed by the flat output vector components
behavior.
B. FLC
This paper proposes an energy-sharing algorithm based on
the fuzzy logic to control the distribution of the energy between
the storage devices in the three operating modes of EHV. This
FLC has three input variables: 1) the voltage of the SC; 2) the
voltage of the BAT; and 3) the output load power. The FLC
output variable (d coefficient) is the percentage of the power
sharing between the BAT and the SC.
The proposed energy-sharing algorithm based on FLC is determined by the number and shape of the membership functions
of each fuzzy variable, as well as the selection of rules, which
are essential for increasing efficiency and for maintaining the
SOC of the BAT and the SC. The specification of the rules of the
FLC depends on the supplies constraints and dynamic behavior
of EHV to guarantee the processs robustness and reliability
[20]. The membership functions of the input variables for the
planned FLC are shown in Fig. 2. In this figure, the membership
functions for the voltage of the SC and the voltage of the BAT
are listed as follows:
1) big negative (N1 and M1 );
2) negative (N2 and M2 );
3) zero (N3 and M3 );
4) positive (N4 and M4 );
5) big positive (N5 and M5 ).
The big negative and the negative values are related to the
voltage smaller than references voltages. The big positive and
the positive values are related to the voltage higher than references voltages. The big negative and the big positive voltages
are limited in the minimum and maximum voltages of the SC
and the BAT, respectively. The zero values are related to the
reference voltages of the SC and the BAT. The membership
functions for output load power are given as follows: 1) small
(W1 ); 2) normal (W2 ); and 3) big (W3 ). Small, normal, and
big are related to the recovery, normal, and overload operating
modes, respectively, which are the operating modes that the

Fig. 2.

Membership functions of input and output variables.

EHV can face to during a power exchange between the main

source (FC), the storage devices (SC and BAT), and the load.
The operating modes are defined as follows.
1) In the normal mode, the load power is positive and less
than the FC rated power. In addition, the control of the
dc/dc converter results in the charging or discharging of
ESS up or down to its reference voltage level.
2) In the overload mode, the load power is positive and
greater than the FC rated power. In addition, the control
of the dc/dc converters of the energy storage devices
(see Conv.SC and Conv.b in Fig. 1) guarantees the dc
buses voltage regulation by compensating for the power
difference between the load and FC. Therefore, the ESS
will be discharged.
3) In the recovery mode, the load power is negative. In
addition, the control of the dc/dc converters regulates the
dc link voltage such that the load power is absorbed by
the ESS.
In addition, a control strategy is needed to select the most
suitable power source for supplying the load at each operating
mode [21]. The rules of the fuzzy controller satisfy the following priority orders.
The charging and discharging of the SC and the BAT are
limited to their own maximum and minimum voltages.
In the transient state, the SC operates as a power source,
and the BAT operates as an energy source.
Due to the dynamic behaviors of the SC and the BAT, first,
the SC must deliver or absorb the energy in the transient
states.

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437

TABLE I
RULE BASE FOR THE R ECOVERY O PERATION M ODE : Dk (W1 )ij

TABLE III
RULE BASE FOR THE OVERLOAD O PERATION M ODE : Dk (W3 )ij

TABLE II
RULE BASE FOR THE N ORMAL O PERATION M ODE : Dk (W2 )ij

continuous membership functions. In the proposed FLC, the

ifthen rules are defined as
IF (vb Mi )AN D(vSC Nj )AN D(PLoad Wl )T HEN
(d = Dk (Wl )) (1 i 5&1 j 5&1 l 3&0 k 10).
(8)
Therefore, the FLC output is calculated with regard to the SC
voltage, the BAT voltage, the output load power, the degree
of memberships (p (Wl ), sc (Nj ), b (Mi )), and the values of
(Dk (Wl ))ij according to Tables IIII.
C. Control Strategy

With regard to the three operating modes, the rule base is

divided into the following three parts.
1) Rule base for the recovery operating mode. Whenever
the output load power is small W1 (the load power is
negative), the FLC can adjust the charging state of the
energy storage devices. The rule table for this operation
mode is shown in Table I.
2) Rule base for the normal operating mode. Whenever
the output load power is normal W2 (the load power is
positive and smaller than the maximum power of FC), the
FC supplies the load, and the SC and the BAT are charged
into their own reference voltages. The rule table for this
operation mode is shown in Table II.
3) Rule base for the overload operating mode. Whenever the
output load power is big W3 (the load power is positive
and bigger than the maximum power of the FC), the FC,
the SC, and the BAT supply the load. The SC and the BAT
can be discharged into minimum voltages. The rule table
for this operating mode is shown in Table III.
The output variable value of the FLC d in Tables IIII are

D d = 1, D1 d = 0.9, D2 d = 0.8

0
D3 d = 0.7, D4 d = 0.6, D5 d = 0.5

D6 d = 0.4, D7 d = 0.3, D8 d = 0.2

D9 d = 0.1, D10 d = 0.
The FLC is executed by a list of ifthen rules that are an
ifthen statement in which some words are characterized by

As aforementioned, planning a desired trajectory for the flat

output components directly prescribes the trajectories of all system variables. Because the capacitors C1 and C2 play different
roles in the EHV, the different trajectories should be mapped on
them. The reference trajectory of y2 , y2ref , is clearly bound to
the desired output voltage (across C2 ), which has to be kept on
a constant desired value (V2ref ) [4]. On the other hand, the reference trajectory y1ref of the energy stored in the capacitor C1
allows for managing the power flows between the main source,
the load, and the ESS. This approach is carried out by varying
the electrostatic energy stored in the C1 . The rate and the level
of this variation control the dynamics and delivered power of
the FC. Fig. 3 shows the generation principal of the proposed
reference trajectory of y1 (y1ref ) in a block-diagram form.
The references of electrostatic energy stored in C1 (y1ref )
should be bounded such that the voltage across capacitor C1
belongs to the interval [Vf min rf if max VD , Vf max ], where
if max is the maximum current authorized in the FC, and Vf max
is its no-load output voltage. In steady state (normal mode), the
power delivered by the FC has to be equal to the load power, and
the stocking energy sources (SC and BAT) should be charged to
their nominal values.
Different functions may be proposed to obtain the reference

) by considering the voltage errors on the SC and the

of v1 (v1ref
BAT (eSC = VSCref vsc , eb = Vbref vb in Fig. 3). In this
paper, the voltage of the dc bus capacitor C1 is considered to be
a function of a global voltage error ev , which linearly depends
on the SC and the BAT voltage errors (ev = Ksc eSC +
Kb eb ). If the storage system is not charged enough (ev >
V ), the voltage v1 is decreased to force the FC to deliver its

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 60, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2011

Fig. 3. Block diagram of the proposed reference trajectory of y1 (y1ref ).

Consequently, the reference current of the SC and BAT converter iSCref and ibret are calculated as



iSCref = 2PSC max 1 1 PSCa +Pcon.SC

vSC
PSC max



(11)
2Pb max
Pba +Pcon.b
i
1 1 Pb max
.
bref =
vb
In (11), PSC max and Pb max represent the maximum power that
can be delivered from the SC and the BAT, where

v2
PSC max = 4rSC
SC
(12)
v2
Pb max = 4rbb .
Fig. 4. Block diagram of the stored electrostatic energy controllers.

maximum power toward the ESS, and vice versa. In this paper,
Ksc = Kb = 0.5. As shown in Fig. 3, a low-pass filter is introduced to limit the dynamics of the delivered power (or the current) by the FC [29], [30]. The time constant of this filter should
be chosen such that the (di/dt)max of the FC is respected.
An input/output linearization technique is used to express
the derivative of the flat output vector components [y 2 and y s
defined in (5)] as a function of fictive control vector [2 s ]T ,
[4], [11] as

y 2 = 2
(9)
y s = s .
A classical controller is employed to force y2 and ys toward
their references, as shown in Fig. 4. Obtaining 2 and s from
the controllers and substituting in (7), the system control vector
components P2 and Pst (the sum of the storage power in ESS)
can be calculated.
It is explained in Section III-B that PSC and Pb are functions
of Pst , which are obtained by a FLC-based algorithm. This
algorithm has the following three input variables: 1) the voltage
of the SC; 2) the voltage of the BAT; and 3) the load power.
The output variable is d (0 d 1), which is the power
percentage such that Pba = d Pst . Therefore, PSCa will be
the difference between Pst and Pba (PSCa = Pst Pba ) after
imposing a limitation on the Pba , because the charging and discharging power of the BAT is limited. To determine the current
references of the SC and BAT converters, their losses (Pcon.SC
and Pcon.b ) are taken into account in the following equations:


2

PSCa = PSC rSC PSC Pcon.SC

vSC
(10)
 2

P
Pba = Pb rb b Pcon.b .
vb

In the same manner, the reference current of converter 2 i2ref

is obtained by the use of (7) as



2P2 max
y 2 + Pload Pba + Pcon.2
i2ref =
1 1
v1
P2 max
(13)
with P2 max = v12 /(4r2 ). The system currents iSC , ib , and
i2 are regulated by sliding mode controllers, and then, the
switching signal of the converters are produced by a pulsewidth
modulation (PWM) technique. Fig. 5 shows the block diagram
of the proposed control strategy.
IV. T EST B ENCH D ESCRIPTION
To validate the proposed FCT/FLC control method of the
EHV, an experimental test bench (ETB) is prepared. The ETB,
as shown in Fig. 6, consists of the following parts:
main source (FC);
ESSs (SC and BAT);
converter modules;
capacitors of dc buses (C1 and C2 );
measurement instruments (oscilloscope and electric signal
sensors);
variable resistive load;
control unit (dSPACE and PC).
The FC in this paper is simulated by programming a typical
static characteristic in a dc power source. The maximum output
power and current of the programmable source is adjusted to
300 W and 11.5 A, respectively. The maximum and minimum
output voltage based on the static characteristics of the FC is
approximately 35 V and 26 V, respectively.
The SC included two banks of six SCs SAFT 3500 F in
series. The rated current and voltage of each SC are 400 A and

ZANDI et al.: ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF FC/SC/BAT POWER SOURCE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICULAR APPLICATION

Fig. 5.

439

Block diagram of the control strategy.

Fig. 7. Behavior of y2 , y2ref , ys , and ysref in the variation of V2ref .

Fig. 6.

ETB.

2.5 V, respectively. Therefore, the total capacitance, output voltage, and output current of the SC are equal to 291 F, 30 V, and
400 A, respectively. The minimum, maximum, and reference
voltages of the SC in the test condition are set to 11 V, 21 V,
and 16 V, respectively. The values of the resistance rSC and inductor lSC in Fig. 1 are around 10 m and 50 H, respectively.
The BAT included two parallel lead-acid batteries FIAM.
The rated voltage of BAT is 24 V. The inductor of battery
converter (Con.b), i.e., lb , is 0.3 mHz, and the resistance rb is
about 10 m. The minimum, maximumand reference voltages
of the BAT in the test condition are 23 V, 27 V, and 25 V,
respectively. The value of the resistance r2 and inductor l2 in
Fig. 1 is around 0.25 and 45 H, respectively.
Three reversible dc/dc boost converters have been used to
ensure the dc bus voltage regulation. The output voltage of
the power source is regulated on 42 V, which is the favorite
voltage in EHV applications. Capacitor C2 , which is used for
smoothing the output voltage ripple, has a 13.6-mF capacitance
value. In addition, variable voltage dc bus capacitor C1 is
composed of ten parallel capacitors of 33 mF.
A set of variable resistive loads is used to test the EHV
operation in different operating modes.
The control unit included a general-purpose dSPACE controller (real-time card DS1105) and a PC. To execute the control

algorithm, the currents and voltages of SC, FC, and BAT, as

well as the load and voltage of C1 (v1 , ), are measured through
zero-flux Hall effect sensors with analogical first-order filters.
The measured signals are sent to the dSPACE through the
onboard analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) interfacing card.
The control algorithm is then run in a MATLAB Simulink
environment, compiled to the microcontroller language, and
finally loaded in the dSPACE hardware. The operator manages
the control algorithm through the Control Desk software. The
switching signal of the converters is generated by dSPACE
and is sent to the drivers through the onboard digital-to-analog
conversion (DAC) interfacing card.
The switching frequency of the converters is set to 20 kHz.
V. E XPRIMENTAL VALIDATIONS
The performance of the EHV is experimented with various
tests in different operating modes. Fig. 7 shows the behavior
of the stored electrostatic energies on the dc bus capacitors y2
and ys with a step variation on the output voltage from 42 V to
48 V. The system output vector components well follow their
own references, which prove the favorite operation of the used
regulators. It should be mentioned that a second-order filter is
employed on the reference trajectory of y2 , y2ref to avoid the
high instantaneous current in the transient state.
The behavior of the electrostatic stored energies (y2 and
ys ) in the discharged and overcharged modes of the ESS are

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 60, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2011

Fig. 8. Behavior of y2 , y2ref , ys , and ysref in the discharge mode (Vscref :

1216 V).

Fig. 11. Behavior of P1 , Pb , PSC , and Pst in the overcharged mode (Vscref :
1612 V).

Fig. 9. Behavior of y2 , y2ref , ys , and ysref in the overcharged mode

(Vscref : 1216 V).

Fig. 12. ys , ysref , y2 , and y2ref in different operating modes.

Fig. 10. Behavior of P1 , Pb , PSC , and Pst in the discharge mode (Vscref :
1216 V).

presented in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively, where the reference

voltage of SC (VSCref ) is varied from 12 V to 16 V (see Fig. 8)
and from 16 V to 12 V (see Fig. 9). In addition, Figs. 10 and
11 present the power of the FC and the power of the ESS (Pb ,
Psc , and Pst ) in the same tests. According to the proposed
control strategy, in the discharged mode (1216 V), the voltage
v1 and, therefore, y1ref is expected to be decreased to deliver
more energy toward the ESS (Psc and Pst will be negative),

whereas in the overcharge mode (1612 V), an inverse behavior

is anticipated. As shown in Figs. 8 and 10, in the first case, ys
(and y1 ) decreases (see Fig. 8), and the FC power P1 increases
(see Fig. 10).
The FLC distributes the sending energies to the ESS between
the SC and the BAT in terms of their SOCs. Logically, the
SC should receive much more power than the BAT, because
it is very discharged. It is shown that, at the starting point, the
SC receives almost 100% of the sending power. As the SC is
charging, P1 , Pst , Psc , and Pb decrease in time, and finally,
the FC power will be equal to the load power (with neglecting
the converter losses). In the second case (1612 V), an inverse
behavior is observed, where the ESS, particularly the SC, sends
the energy to the load (see Fig. 11).
Consequently, the power of the FC decreases (see Fig. 9).
In all situations, the output electrostatic energy and the output
voltage stay constant and follow their references well.
Fig. 12 shows the system output vector components (electrostatic energies stored in dc bus capacitors) and their references
with the load power variation [the profile of the load power
variation is shown in Figs. 14 and 15 (PLoad ), and this profile
is respected to investigate the system behavior and to obtain
the other waveforms shown in Figs. 12 and 13]. It is shown that
the system output components perfectly follow their references.
Generally, when the system works in the overload operating

ZANDI et al.: ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF FC/SC/BAT POWER SOURCE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICULAR APPLICATION

Fig. 13. v1 , V2 , vSC , and vb variations in different operating modes.

441

Fig. 15. Pst , PLoad , and power-sharing coefficients of the ESS in different
operating modes.

Fig. 15 presents the coefficients of the power sharing (output

of FLC) between the SC and the BAT (Psc and Pb ), which is
carried out by the FLC, depending on the SOCs of the SC and
BAT and the load power. The results given in Fig. 15 allow us
to validate the efficiency of the considered rules for the fuzzy
controller. In fact, the SC operates as a power source, and the
BAT operates as an energy source. Moreover, in the transient
states, the SC is first delivered or absorbs energy. When the
system comes back to the normal operating mode (P0 max >
PLoad , t > 100 s in Fig. 14), the FC will charge the SC and
the BAT to their reference values. Figs. 1215 show the favored
operation of the EHPS with the purposed control strategy in the
EHV applications.
Fig. 14. P1 , Psc , and Pb variations by variation of PLoad in different
operating modes.

VI. C ONCLUSION

mode, the reference of the total electrostatic stored energy ysref

reaches its minimum value, whereas in the normal operating
mode, depending on the load power, it varies between the maximum and minimum values. The electrostatic energy stored in
the output dc bus y2 stays constant in all operating modes, even
with a brutal load variation. When the load power increases, the
dc bus voltage v1 should be decreased (see Fig. 13) to force the
FC to deliver more energy. Therefore, ysref decreases with a
slow dynamics, and the FC power augments, whereas its variation is well controlled (see Fig. 14). The voltage waveforms
of the dc buses v1 and V2 are shown in Fig. 13. Because the
dynamics of the FC power is limited, the auxiliary devices
(ESS) have to compensate this inherent weakness of the FC.
This condition leads to a perfect control of the system outputs
y2 and ys . Waveforms of the ESS power Psc , Pb , and Pst are
shown in Figs. 14 and 15. The quick variation of Pst proves the
fast dynamics of the auxiliary source. Furthermore, as expected,
the ESS not only compensates for the load power variations in
transient state but also helps the FC to supply the load in the
overload operating mode (P1 max < PLoad ). It can be verified
in Figs. 14 and 15 at t = 80 s until t = 100 s, where the FC
delivers its maximum power (300 W). Therefore, the voltage
of the SC and the BAT decreases in this interval (see Fig. 13),
whereas the output voltage stays constant (at t = 80 s, a step
load power from 280 W to 780 W is imposed to the system,
which is about 250% of the P1 max ).

This paper has presented a combination of a FCT and a FLC

to manage the power flow in an electrical hybrid power source
(EHPS) for electric vehicular applications. The purposed
control strategy allows for managing the energy in the EHPS
without algorithm commutations and predicting the system
behavior, even in transient states. The power flows between the
FC, the energy storage system (ESS), and the load is controlled
by the FCT, and the power division between the ESS (a SC
and a BAT) is carried out by the FLC. The power division
depends on the load power and SOC of the SC and the BAT.
The electrostatic energy stored in the output capacitor (C2 ) and
the sum of the electrostatic energies stored in dc buses (C1 and
C2 ) are assumed to be the flat output components. By planning
the desired trajectories for the system output components, the
behavior of all state and control variables of the system is
described. The fact that the output components perfectly follow
their references proves the favored operation of the ESS to
address the high dynamic load power and to help the FC in the
overload mode. In this strategy, the power delivered by the FC
is limited, and its dynamics are controlled. The experimental
results confirm the validity of the proposed control strategy in
the studied topology. The output voltage stays always constant,
even when a high step load power is imposed to the system.
This strategy can be applied to other topologies with other
types of energy sources (e.g., solar system and wind turbine) in
an EHPS.

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Majid Zandi received the B.Sc. degree in

electrical engineering from Ferdowsi University,
Mashhad, Iran, in 1991 and the M.Sc. degree from
the Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran, in 1995. He is currently working toward
the Ph.D. degree, specializing in the contribution
control of energy in the electric hybrid system, with
the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine,
University of Nancy, Nancy, France, with the Groupe
de Recherche en Electrotechnique et Electronique
de Nancy.
His research interests include the control of electrical hybrid systems, electric
vehicles, and clean energy sources (e.g., fuel cells and photovoltaic systems).

Alireza Payman received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Iran University of Science
and Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1999, the M.Sc.
degree in electrical engineering from the University
of Tehran in 2002, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Nancy, Nancy,
France, in 2009.
He is currently an Assistant Professor with the
University of Le Havre, Le Havre, France. His
research interests include the control of electrical
hybrid systems, power electronics and drives, and
renewable energy.

Jean-Philippe Martin received the Ph.D. degree

from the University of Nancy, Nancy, France,
in 2003.
Since 2004, he has been an Assistant Professor
with the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine,
University of Nancy, where his research activities
with the Groupe de Recherche en Electrotechnique
et Electronique de Nancy include electrical machine
controls and static converter architectures and their
interactions with new electrical devices (fuel cell and
photovoltaic system).

ZANDI et al.: ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF FC/SC/BAT POWER SOURCE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICULAR APPLICATION

Serge Pierfederici received the Dipl. Ing. degree

from the cole Nationale Suprieure dlectricit et
de Mcanique, Nancy, France, in 1994 and the Ph.D.
degree from University of Nancy in 1998.
Since 2009, he has been a Professor with the
Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, University of Nancy, where his research activities with the
Groupe de Recherche en Electrotechnique et Electronique de Nancy deal with the stability study of
distributed power systems and the control of multisource multiload systems.

Bernard Davat (M10) received the Dipl. Ing.

degree from Ecole Nationale Suprieure dElectrotechnique, dElectronique, dInformatique, dHydraulique et des Tlcommunications, Toulouse,
France, in 1975 and the Ph.D. and Docteur dEtat
degrees in electrical engineering from the Institut
National Polytechnique de Toulouse in 1978 and
1984, respectively.
From 1980 to 1988, he was a Researcher with
the French National Center for Scientific Research,
Laboratoire dElectrotechnique et dElectronique Industrielle. Since 1988, he has been a Professor with the Institut National
Polytechnique de Lorraine, University of Nancy, Nancy, France, where he is
currently with the Groupe de Recherche en Electrotechnique et Electronique
de Nancy. His research interests include power electronics and new electrical
devices (fuel cells and supercapacitors).

443

Farid Meibody-Tabar received the Dipl. Ing. degree from cole Nationale Suprieure dlectricit et
de Mcanique, Nancy, France, in 1982 and the Ph.D.
and Habilitation Diriger des Recherch degrees
from the University of Nancy in 1986 and 2000,
respectively.
Since 2000, he has been a Professor with the
Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, University of Nancy, where his research activities with
the Groupe de Recherche en Electrotechnique et
Electronique de Nancy deal with the architecture and
control of electrical machines supplied by static converters.