Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.5
3.2
Journals
Energies
Special Issues
Optimal Control of Fuel Cells and Wind Turbines
energies-logo
Submit to Energies Review for Energies Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Optimal Control of Fuel Cells and Wind Turbines

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A5: Hydrogen Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2020) | Viewed by 14572

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Zoran Gajic

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08554, USA
Interests: energy systems; control systems; computational methods; reinforcement learning; networking and wireless communications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

Fuel cells and wind turbines, as clean electric energy generators that do not pollute the environment, are used in industrial and domestic applications. Numerous dynamic processes in fuel cells and wind turbines create many challenging opportunities for control engineers, including the design of optimal controllers. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are the best understood and most developed fuel cells. Some modern electric cars are powered by PEMFC. Optimal control can be used for PEMFC to kept the pressures of hydrogen and oxygen pressures as close as possible in order to protect membrane degradation. Optimal controllers can be found in electric vehicles powered by PEMFC. Optimal controllers can be designed for PEMFF for optimal trajectory tracking, and optimal robust (H-infinity) control. In the case of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC), which in addition to electric energy provide a lot of heat and are also utilized for heating, optimal controllers can be designed for load tracking of grid-connected SOFC, optimal robust control to maintain safe operations with maximum efficiency under load and uncertainty variations, optimal fault-tolerant control, and optimal temperature control. In general, optimal controllers are needed for power management and power flow control in hybrid fuel cell/solar/wind/battery/ultra-capacitor systems. Optimal controllers can be also designed for other types of fuel cells, for example, optimal control for load changes in molten carbonate fuel cells and optimal control for methanol fuel cells to maintain optimal methanol concentration.

Optimal controllers for wind turbines can be designed for rotor control, pitch control, vibration control, optimal transient response, torque control, optimal power extraction, optimal energy management, fault-tolerant control, variable speed control, optimal power sharing control, robust (H-infinity) control, maximum power tracking, and other aspects of wind turbine dynamics and operations. These controllers can be designed either for individual wind turbines or for wind farms. Optimal controllers can be also used for hybrid wind/solar/battery/fuel cell systems. Since wind turbines have mechanical, electrical, and electronic components, their dynamics evolve in several time scales. The design of optimal multi-time scale controllers for wind turbines is a research area that has not been fully explored yet. Both deterministic and stochastic controllers are suitable for optimal control of wind turbine dynamics and operations.

Prof. Dr. Zoran Gajic
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fuel cells
  • wind turbines
  • electric power management
  • deterministic and stochastic optimal controllers
  • optimal robust and fault-tolerant controllers
  • optimal multi-time scale controllers
  • applications

Published Papers (6 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

20 pages, 1002 KiB  
Article
Singularly Perturbed Modeling and LQR Controller Design for a Fuel Cell System
by Kliti Kodra and Ningfan Zhong
Energies 2020, 13(11), 2735; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13112735 - 29 May 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1969
Abstract
Modeling and control of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) has become a very popular research topic lately due to the increasing use of renewable energy. Despite this fact, most of the work in the current literature only studies standard dynamical models without taking [...] Read more.
Modeling and control of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) has become a very popular research topic lately due to the increasing use of renewable energy. Despite this fact, most of the work in the current literature only studies standard dynamical models without taking into consideration possible parasitics such as small gas flow perturbations that could be available in the system. This paper addresses this issue by elaborating on time-scale modeling of an augmented eighteenth-order PEMFC-reformer system via singular perturbation theory. The latter captures time scales that arise in the model due to the presence of small perturbations. Specifically, a novel and efficient algorithm that helps identify the presence of different time-scales is developed. In addition, the method converts an implicit singularly perturbed model into an explicit equivalent where the time-scales are evident. Using this algorithm, a complete singularly perturbed dynamic model of the augmented eighteenth-order PEMFC-reformer system is obtained. Modeling of the PEMFC-reformer system is followed by linear quadratic regulator (LQR) design for the individual time-scales present in the system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimal Control of Fuel Cells and Wind Turbines)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 6695 KiB  
Article
Simulation of Fuzzy Control of Oxygen Flow in PEM Fuel Cells
by Adam Polak
Energies 2020, 13(9), 2372; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13092372 - 9 May 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2710
Abstract
This paper presents an alternative approach to the flow control of an oxidizer in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system in which pure oxygen is the gas supplied to the cathode channel of the stack. The proposed oxygen flow control is [...] Read more.
This paper presents an alternative approach to the flow control of an oxidizer in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system in which pure oxygen is the gas supplied to the cathode channel of the stack. The proposed oxygen flow control is implemented based on information about the current drawn from the fuel cell stack and the voltage variation in the stack. This information and a fuzzy-logic-based control algorithm are used to increase oxygen utilization in a PEM fuel cell system without a recirculation system in relation to the control, in which the oxygen flow rate is determined only in proportion to the current drawn from the stack. To verify the validity of the adopted assumptions, simulation tests of the proposed fuzzy control algorithm were conducted, for which parameters were adopted arbitrarily and determined with help of genetic algorithms. For simulation research, the proposed empirical mathematical model was used, which describes the mathematical relationship between voltage variation in the stack and the stoichiometry of oxygen flow through the cathode of a fuel cell stack. The simulation results confirm that the proposed control method leads to an increase in the oxygen utilization in the system without oxygen recirculation compared to an open system with cathode stoichiometry set to a constant level. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimal Control of Fuel Cells and Wind Turbines)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

22 pages, 1805 KiB  
Article
Optimal Control of Wind Turbine Systems via Time-Scale Decomposition
by Intessar Al-Iedani and Zoran Gajic
Energies 2020, 13(2), 287; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13020287 - 7 Jan 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2428
Abstract
In this paper, we design an optimal controller for a wind turbine (WT) with doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) by decomposing the algebraic Riccati equation (ARE) of the singularly perturbed wind turbine system into two reduced-order AREs that correspond to the slow and fast [...] Read more.
In this paper, we design an optimal controller for a wind turbine (WT) with doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) by decomposing the algebraic Riccati equation (ARE) of the singularly perturbed wind turbine system into two reduced-order AREs that correspond to the slow and fast time scales. In addition, we derive a mathematical expression to obtain the optimal regulator gains with respect to the optimal pure-slow and pure-fast, reduced-order Kalman filters and linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controllers. Using this method allows the design of the linear controllers for slow and fast subsystems independently, thus, achieving complete separation and parallelism in the design process. This solves the corresponding ill-conditioned problem and reduces the complexity that arises when the number of wind turbines integrated to the power system increases. The reduced-order systems are compared to the original full-order system to validate the performance of the proposed method when a wind turbulence and a large-signal disturbance are applied to the system. In addition, we show that the similarity transformation does not preserve the performance index value in case of Kalman filter and the corresponding LQG controller. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimal Control of Fuel Cells and Wind Turbines)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 6822 KiB  
Article
Multi-Timescale-Based Partial Optimal Control of a Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell
by Milos Milanovic and Verica Radisavljevic-Gajic
Energies 2020, 13(1), 166; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13010166 - 30 Dec 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2164
Abstract
This paper presents a Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) transient model in stack current cycling conditions and its partial optimal control. The derived model is used for a specific application of the recently published multistage control technique developed by the authors. The presented [...] Read more.
This paper presents a Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) transient model in stack current cycling conditions and its partial optimal control. The derived model is used for a specific application of the recently published multistage control technique developed by the authors. The presented control-oriented transient PEMFC model is an extension of the steady-state control-oriented model previously established by the authors. The new model is experimentally validated for transient operating conditions on the Greenlight Innovation G60 testing station where the comparison of the experimental and simulation results is presented. The derived five-state nonlinear control-oriented model is linearized, and three clusters of eigenvalues can be clearly identified. This specific feature of the linearized model is known as the three timescale system. A novel multistage optimal control technique is particularly suitable for this class of systems. It is shown that this control technique enables the designer to construct a local LQR, pole-placement or any other linear controller type at the subsystem level completely independently, which further optimizes the performance of the whole non-decoupled system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimal Control of Fuel Cells and Wind Turbines)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

13 pages, 3829 KiB  
Article
On the Robustness of Active Wake Control to Wind Turbine Downtime
by Stoyan Kanev
Energies 2019, 12(16), 3152; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12163152 - 16 Aug 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2395
Abstract
Active wake control (AWC) is an operational strategy for wind farms that aims at reducing the negative effects of wakes behind wind turbines on the power production and mechanical loads at the wind turbines’ downstream. For a given wind direction, the strategy relies [...] Read more.
Active wake control (AWC) is an operational strategy for wind farms that aims at reducing the negative effects of wakes behind wind turbines on the power production and mechanical loads at the wind turbines’ downstream. For a given wind direction, the strategy relies on collaborative control of the machines within each row of turbines that affect each other through their wakes. The vast amount of research performed during the last decade indicates that the potential upside of this technology on the annual energy production of a wind farm can be as high as a few percentage points. Although these predictions on the potential benefits are quite significant, they typically assume full availability of all turbines within a row operating under AWC. However, even though the availability of offshore wind turbines is nowadays quite high (as high as 95%, or even higher), the availability of a whole row of turbines is shown to be much lower (lower than 60% for a row of ten turbines). This paper studies the impact of turbine downtime on the power production increase from AWC, and concludes that the AWC is robust enough to be kept operational in the presence of turbines standing still. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimal Control of Fuel Cells and Wind Turbines)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 4732 KiB  
Article
Improved Rotor Braking Protection Circuit and Self-Adaptive Control for DFIG during Grid Fault
by Jiming Chen, Yuanhao Wang, Mingxiao Zhu, Qianyu Yu and Jiacai Li
Energies 2019, 12(10), 1994; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12101994 - 24 May 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2387
Abstract
This paper introduces an improved rotor braking protection circuit configuration and the corresponding self-adaptive control strategy to enhance the low voltage ride-through (LVRT) capability of the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG). The proposed protection circuit consists of a crowbar circuit and a series rotor [...] Read more.
This paper introduces an improved rotor braking protection circuit configuration and the corresponding self-adaptive control strategy to enhance the low voltage ride-through (LVRT) capability of the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG). The proposed protection circuit consists of a crowbar circuit and a series rotor braking resistor array, which guarantees the safe operation of wind generators under the LVRT. Moreover, to adapt the proposed protection and further enhance the performance of the improved configuration, a corresponding self-adaptive control strategy is presented, which regulates the rotor braking resistor and protection exiting time automatically through calculating the rotor current in the fault period. The LVRT capability and transient performance of the DFIG by using the proposed method is tested with simulation. Compared with the conventional crowbar protection or the fixed rotor braking protection, the proposed protection and the control strategy present several advantages, such as retaining the control of the rotor side converter, avoiding repeated operation of the protection and accelerating the damping of stator flux linkage during a grid fault. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimal Control of Fuel Cells and Wind Turbines)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-6
Back to TopTop