Control of PEM fuel cell system via higher order sliding mode control

This paper presents a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) dynamic model of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. A non-linear controller is designed to prolong the stack life of the PEM fuel cell. A moderate deviation between hydrogen and oxygen partial pressures can cause severe membrane damage in the fuel cell. Therefore, a second-order sliding mode strategy is applied to the PEM fuel cell system. This controller is combined with a new step by step differentiators as an output-feedback controller. The differentiator estimates a successive derivative of the measured error signal up to n – 1 order after a finite time transient. Simulation procedure shows performance of the SOSM approach to control PEMFC stack pressure to provide robustness against uncertainties and disturbances.