Optimized Fuzzy Thermal Management of an Open Cathode Fuel Cell System

Temperature control has an important part to play in the performance and durability of an open cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). This paper puts forward an optimized fuzzy temperature controller with the aim of controlling the cooling fan to provide stable operating conditions in a 500-W Horizon PEMFC. In this respect, an electrochemical model and a thermal model are calibrated for the mentioned PEMFC by means of an optimization algorithm in the first place. Subsequently, a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is designed and optimized to regulate the temperature by considering the operating current and temperature error as inputs and the fan duty cycle as the only output. The temperature error is determined by the difference between the actual temperature and the reference one. The main idea is to control the fan, which is responsible for water removing, stoichiometry, and temperature regulation, to achieve the reference temperature as fast as possible. The final results of this work indicate the effectiveness of the proposed FLC in reaching the set temperature. The proposed controller can be used in the maximum power point tracking of a PEMFC since this point is reached in a particular stable temperature.