Power Switching Based on Trajectory Planning and Sliding Mode Control for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Systems

To improve the safety of the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems and avoid the generation of large amounts of pollutants during power switching, this paper designs a power switching strategy based on trajectory planning and sliding mode control (TP-SMC). The design elements of the power switching strategy are proposed through simulation analysis at first. Then, based on the gas transmission delay time and the change of gas flow obtained from testing, trajectory planning (TP) is implemented. Compared with other power switching strategies, it has been proven that the power switching strategy based on TP has significantly better control performance. Furthermore, considering the shortcomings and problems of TP in practical application, this paper introduces sliding mode control (SMC) on the basis of TP to improve the power switching strategy. The final simulation results also prove that the TP-SMC can effectively suppress the impact of uncertainty in gas flow and gas transmission delay time. Compared with TP, TP-SMC can ensure that under uncertain conditions, the SOFC system does not experience fuel starvation and temperature exceeding limit during power switching. Meanwhile, the NOx emissions are also within the normal and acceptable range. This paper can guide the power switching process of the actual SOFC systems to avoid safety issues and excessive generation of NOx, which is very helpful for improving the performance and service life of the SOFC systems.