Fuzzy Logic Based Power Distribution Strategy for Hybrid Fuel Cell Vehicle

Currently zero emission vehicles are the need of automotive industry. This research focuses on design of powertrain and power distribution strategy for fuel cell hybrid vehicle. Vehicle driven only by fuel cell as a single source have various disadvantages such as sluggish response to transient power requirements, higher fuel consumption, no provision for storage of energy during lost during braking, higher cost, lower range, more packaging space required. To overcome this, fuel cell can be combined with auxiliary energy storage source. This paper proposes powertrain topology for vehicle with Fuel cell and battery (FC+B) combination. Power split strategy is defined using Fuzzy logic. Simulations are performed in MATLAB SIMULINK for FTP-75 drive cycle. Results of proposed strategy are compared with FC alone powertrain. Results shows that with proposed powertrain configuration, fuel consumption is reduced thereby achieving higher driving range.